Into the Unknown
by Spiritwolf71
Summary: Two years after the Omega four relay discovery a shuttle sets out for a tour of the one of the newly discovered galaxies. Lead by greed an accident happens causing the shuttle to crash into an unchartered planet. This is the journey of those that survived. This follows the events of Turnabout. You don't have to read it but it might provide understanding.
1. Chapter 1

Bad Luck

Shepard had been the saviour of the galaxy. She was the hero of the citadel, she destroyed the Collectors base. She had led the Galaxy to defeating the Reapers and she had died. But then she mysterious rose from the dead yet again and defeated another arm of Cerberus. When the smoke finally settled and the rest of the Galaxy caught up to what had happened, she had found what the Omega 4 Relay was really intended for.

Galaxies that were simply so far away one could only dream of visiting them were now sitting on the other side of the big orange relay and all they had been waiting for was a key, a key Shepard had found.

No one had ever thought the Milky Way was the only galaxy that housed organic life. The Reapers had explained to Shepard once that organic life was genetic mutation, an accident, but that never meant the accident did not happen elsewhere. The universe was a giant place where no living being could grasp the concept of its size.

The organic Life in the Milky Way had been pompous enough to think they were the only ones. They were wrong and the Omega 4 Relay proved that. They were arrogant to think they were the only ones worthy of Reaper interference; they took everything the Reapers said and believed that it was all about them. The Reapers never said that they were the only mistakes and the only part of their cycles.

As the Allied forces explored the new found galaxies they had been able to determine that the Reapers had already harvested many of them. The Milky Way was simply one of many, no longer alone. Several of the galaxies visited were still in their infancy, the less evolved species left behind to grow. They would never know the horrors of the Reapers; they would be allowed to grow on their intended path without interference.

Some argued that the Allied Forces should lock the Relay and allow no one in; some argued that it was the biggest discovery since finding the Citadel. Some could only see profits.

It had only taken the galaxy a year to catch on to the mystery of the Omega 4 Relay and just a little bit longer for people to start making money off it. The Council was still limiting how many ships could go through and limited them to galaxies already explored by the Allied forces. That limited the tourism to two destinations: the Parsons Galaxies and the Agamenon galaxy. The council had decided they were going to take things very slowly, especially after what had happened with the Turians and the Human years ago.

Pitne For Industries had been the first to jump on the bandwagon, designing several ships that had been sanction for tourism into the either of the new galaxies. For six months he held the position alone as the other industries scrambled to join in the profit. In those six months only the elite and the Rich were able to make the trips. The price was more than most people could pay. As other shuttle services began to gain entry to the new Galaxies the prices dropped considerably to the point that anyone with a job could make a decent vacation out of a trip.

Both Galaxies had already been harvested, and recently. Most guessed just before the Reapers came to the Milky Way. Neither of them had space faring races but the evidence of the Reapers and advanced civilizations were all over the place. Each galaxy had its own Omega 4 Relay and its own Citadel, all just waiting for the people of this galaxy to find. This time however they would be able to keep it. They would never know of the Reapers, they would never have to live horror that the Milky Way Galaxy had faced and overcome.

Pitne For Industries had three different types of shuttles; there was the Elite, the Limited, and the Econo. The Elite was reserved for the one percent of the population that had too much money. They offered several different options including lap dancers, certain narcotic and even some rare exotic items. They came with larger size rooms and a paid bar and servants, and each customer had their own bedrooms and bathrooms.

The Limited was more for the business class, and blue class families, there was a bar and refreshments were served to a certain degree. There were bedrooms for everyone but not as roomy as Elite and showers and bathrooms were shared.

Then there was Econo where there were no separate rooms, the chairs you sat in folded back into beds and the showers and bathroom were shared and limited. You also needed to bring your own food which was pretty much limited to paste.

The Council had come up with a lot of rules regarding traveling through the relay, most of them to preserve the natural growth of the natives. Of course that was a rule of the Milky Way Galaxy but there were always people who broke rules. They only hoped by limiting the number of ships and keeping track of everyone that went through they could avoid slavers sneaking over. Everyone knew it was only going to be a matter of time before even the Council lost control of the key codes require for travel.

Jorgal Tanith was one who was looking for a fresh start; the only problem was she was not sure where she would find one. She had been on the run for years now and every time she thought she found some where safe some bounty hunter or mercenary managed to catch up to her. She was beginning to think she would never escape her past.

She had not really planned on this trip and like everyone else, she had no baggage or food, just the armour on her back.

She had moved herself to Omega a little over two months ago after a close call on Tortuga. At first it had been so easy to blend in. When she wore her armour it was easy for people to think she was a male, even the many Krogan on the station never graced her with a second look. She had gotten herself a job as a mechanic for one of the shuttle bay operators. The pay was not great but it was enough to get her a room, board and occasionally a good book to read.

Unlike most Krogan, she did not care for fighting and killing. Not that the females of the race did a lot of that since the Genophage had been cured. Now the women were pretty much only good for one thing. They were paired off and expected to start producing offspring. Given the number of males to females it was not uncommon for one female to have many mates either. Tanith wanted nothing to do with mating. She hated children and she just wanted to do what she wanted to do. She had wanted to be a great Krogan leader at one point but that was laid to rest when she realized Krogan women were not allowed to be. It was even worse after the cure.

She had grown up a bit of a dreamer, always wanting to see other worlds and explore. Because she was so different from the other females she had been picked on and made fun of. She had learned how to fight at a young age and could even take on most of the boys. Even now she was more than capable of taking care of herself, she just preferred not to have to.

She had been more angry then upset when she spotted Rell of her clan. He was to be her mate, whether she wanted him to be or not. He had been hunting her down since she escaped Tuchunka on a Turian cruiser. The Trurians had believed her to be Jorgal Stern since it was his omni tool she had stolen. She was getting tired of having to be constantly on the run. Of course that would end the moment the shuttle returned to Omega, if he had seen her duck into the shuttle bay. If he had, her six year run would be at an end. She would not be able to hide any longer.

It was certainly hard to hide when you were a seven foot tall Krogan and looked completely different then every other race in the galaxy. She did well amongst the Council races, wearing armour and deepening her voice, most though she was male and she was more than happy to let them believe that. She had the same bias when it came to the other Council races. All the Asari and Turians looked the same the humans at least had different colour hair but even then most of them looked similar.

The shuttle was rather full, carrying almost twenty people. On Econo class there was no stewardess, just some video they were forced to watch as they took off on their four day tour of the Agamenon Galaxy. There were several vending machines for all sorts of different thing, paste, snacks, drinks and even magazines.

There were all sort of different people gracing the shuttle. Near the front where they pay slightly more, was a human, husband, wife and three loud obnoxious children. There had been a few times already Tanith had almost gotten up and squashed their heads, she hated children. Sitting across from the humans was a group of Volus talking in hushed whispers, like anyone really cared what they had to say. Tanith hated Volus, always trying to sell you something or throwing numbers and stats in your face. They were short and round and she could not help but wonder if they could be used in that human game of football.

In front of her were two Turian which she guessed were Father and son, in the seat beside her was a young Asari, who was already asleep. On the other side of the aisle were two more Asari and some shady looking human. The human she was interested in because he kept looking at her. He was either intimidated by her size or he was another mercenary.

"So they say the Reapers hit here before they came to the Milky Way," the Asari who sat beside her said trying to look past her, out the window. Tanith had not been aware she had woken.

"Too bad for them," Tanith stated hoping her curtness would end the conversation before it really began.

"Are you not curious what they were like, I mean, I like to try and think of what kind of relationship the different races would have, would they be like us, did they ally with each other, or was it more like when the Protheans were in charge or was it something completely different."

"Curiosity is often a trait that gets people killed, didn't anyone ever teach you that. Talking to unknown Krogans sometimes yield the same result."

The Asari looked at her for a few moments before staring straight ahead. At least she understood what Tanith was getting at. She wondered how old the little blue alien was, she was horrible at guessing ages of the other species, and all Asari seemed to be young and beautiful, at least with Turians and Humans they started to get wrinkly as they got older. It was quiet for a few minutes as the pilot made some announcement about a world they were circling. Something about it being unknown and they were the first to see it. It was a bunch of crock. She was surprised they weren't going to land though; he went on about primitive races still early in their evolution.

"Were you in the war?" the Asari asked from beside her. Tanith turned to her and almost growled, instead she glared.

"No, I was unavailable." She lied. She had been on Illium when the Reapers hit, she had fought them, but not as part as any allied force, just basically for survival. She had been roped in to helping some of the citizens of that planet survive but that was her only involvement.

"I'm an Asari Commando,"

Tanith blinked and somehow didn't believe her. Rumour had it that Asari Commandos had taken a beating during the war and that their ranks were severely depleted but the woman beside her simply did not seem the type. She looked straight ahead; she had just wanted a little bit of piece before she probably had to fight her way out of the shuttle bay when she returned.

"Yes, graduated top of my squad."

"Very good for you, do they teach Asari Commandos to shut up?" Again they had a staring contest that the Asari did not win. She could never understand why people always insisted on wanting to talk to her. She tried to look unapproachable and miserable. Hell she was seven feet tall and had a permanent scowl on her face. She was going to have to start carrying a shot gun again.

~Ladies and gentlemen, if you would look to your starboard side you will see an actual satellite, since the natives of this planet are still in a low stage of evolution it would mean this satellite came from one of the races that Reapers harvested. ~ Like she cared about a satellite. Everyone else seemed to though as some of them looked to the monitor in the room and some looked to the event on their omni tool. The two other Asari moved to the window behind her.

Tanith was uncertain of which of them it was but there was a slight scent of mint. Not enough to be over powering but enough to be pleasant.

~Well just take a nice close look and see if there are any marking on it, ~ the pilot said as Tanith moved closer to the window. The young Asari commando was leaning over her to look.

~We are actually going to try and lock on to the satellite and we can bring it back home for further study. ~

Which, when translated, meant 'we are going to grab a hold of it and bring it home to see what kind of a profit we can make from it'. She sighed and tried to lean back in her seat but the little commando was in the way. She could not help herself anymore and let a growl escape. The girl looked at her for a few moments before sitting back in her seat.

Tanith suddenly realized the true reason behind econo class shuttles as she closed her eyes to wait. The pilot's job was to show them the required sights as well as collect anything that might prove useful in the process, that old human saying, two birds with one stone theory. Pitne For was pretty much that shallow, she could certainly see him doing this.

"Is this usual?" The Asari beside her asked, even though she did not look at Tanith this time she knew the blue Alien was talking to her.

"I imagine so," Tanith replied, "it's a good way to make money. I'd do it."

The Asari nodded and looked out the window as the shuttle moved closer. "Will we be able to fly with that thing attached to us?"

"I am more than certain this ship is made to carry all sorts of things. The Council won't allow them to bring in a salvage vessel so I imagine this is the next best thing. Disguise it as a tourist attraction. I'd certainly do it if my motivating factor was greed."

The Asari rubbed her forehead and made some strange noise. Tanith did not think the woman liked her very much, not that she cared. She looked out the window to where a large arm attempted to grab a hold of the satellite. It appeared dead, for about five minutes, but the second the arm touch it came life.

At first it was simply a flashing red light and Tanith instantly had a bad feeling. She quickly put on her belt and turned to the Asari, without speaking she grabbed the woman's belt.

"Strap yourself in, now," she said. The Asari commando obeyed without question. "Strap in," She said to anyone that would listen. She looked back out the window as there was suddenly an explosion, the shuttle seemed to be jolted closer to the planet. Things got even worse when the secondary explosion hit and suddenly they were in the atmosphere of the planet. People were screaming and bodies were flying. Something bounced off her head.

There was no instruction from the pilots and Tanith had no doubt they were dead or concentrating on not dying. Tanith could not help but wonder if it was indeed an uncharted planet they had stop at, lured there by the satellite and some greedy beach ball Volus' profit. She felt herself get angry as the ship passed through the thermosphere and the shuttle got hot, she could see the outside metal actually turning slightly red. They were lucky that some of the systems were a still working and the fact they were going in at the appropriate angle made her rethink the death of the pilots, one of them must still be alive.

As they continued towards the planet she wanted to be afraid, or angry or anything but instead she found herself feeling calmer than she ever had. If she died here then her struggle was over, she would no longer have to run or hide or live with her past. It would all be over and she could accept that. Not that she wanted to die, but she could accept it.

Things went from red to green and blue as she looked down to the planet they would crash on. She did not see survival in her future; they would hit that ground and explode. They were heading straight down now, nose first, that was never a good sign.

Just when she came to terms with that fact the shuttle seemed to level, but people were still screaming. The Asari beside her was gripping her arm tightly and Tanith let her. She might not have liked the woman but she didn't need to die alone.

They hit the ground once and bounced, unfortunately that was not good for those that had not strapped in, and they were getting tossed around the ship. Without thinking Tanith grabbed the Asari's head and covered it with her own. Krogan heads were made to take a beating; Asari head were more like exploding watermelons. They bounced again and two more times for good measure before the struck something and stopped.

When they stopped it was eerily quiet as everyone that was still alive took stock of their situation. Tanith released the Asari.

The Krogan winced as she realized the family she had spotted earlier were all dead. She looked to the children who had not been strapped in. She hated children but she hated even more to see them like this.

"What do we do now?" the Asari Commando asked slowly, obviously in shock.

"Well, getting out of this shuttle is a good start." Tanith said released her belt. She stood and waited for the Asari to move. Once she did they both started to help the other survivors get out of their chairs and out of the shuttle.

When they were done only six of them were alive. She had checked the pilots chambers but the pilots were indeed dead with the one that had saved them being crushed by the overly large tree they had hit. She looked to the two Turians, they would not last forever either with their dextro amino acid thing that made them so different.

They had landed on the outskirt of a forest and were lucky to have a large body of water beside them. At the moment though they all simply stood in shock as the implications of their situation hit them, two Turians, two Asari a Human and a Krogan, it almost sounded like the beginning of some horrible joke.

**Ok, this story might not make sense if you did not read my last story, Turnabout. It explained how they had access to other Galaxies and such and it took place 18-24 months after. I know who the characters are and I know a bit of the story but it will be an ongoing saga of this group. I have no pre-set ideas for romance or deaths or anything. In saying that I don't mind to hear who and what people would like to see and if it is feasible I will see what I can do. I will start to introduce the character next chapter. I do hope you enjoy this as much as you enjoyed Turnabout if you read it. This is purely OC's with maybe mention of other characters.**


	2. Chapter 2

Elysia Grant

The last thing Elysia remembered about her mother was her night before her graduation. She had not really wanted to go to University but her mother had insisted. Tolema Grant had wanted better things for her daughter; she wanted the young Asari to have a skill set she could rely on that was not related to being a Commando. It had been all Elysia had talked about since she was a small child. Since she had found out that her mother had once been a Commando.

Tolema had tried everything to push her daughter in a different path but it did not help that Elysia was powerful with her biotics, that she had gone through biotic training with ease and had even been transferred to a school for the gifted, with Asari that were twice her age. It was a move her mother had never really been happy with but she had not stopped her daughter. There Elysia began her training, not only in biotics but various forms of marital arts.

The young Asari had spent twenty five years in training and when she had graduated she had been too young to become even a warrior in any of the villages. She was still in the middle of her Elusian, the Asari's version of puberty and no one would even take a second look at her. She had been told over and over that she was too young and to return when she was older. Tolema had taken that opportunity to get the young Asari into University to study something other than killing. She had also wanted her daughter to spend some time with children that were her age.

Elysia had never really had a childhood, her peers had always been twice her age and because she did not fit in with them she had spent most of her time alone. Elysia knew she lacked the communication skill that most of her people possessed, she was blunt and to the point and at times even petulant.

So Elysia went to University but found she was an outsider there as well. Yes the students were her age, but they certainly did not think the way she did. They were philosopher and dreamers and though of peace and politics. They liked to hang out and drink and talk or have discussion. Elysia found that she would study, go to classes, do her required work and then work out. She had wanted to make friends several times with several people but she simply did not have the skills so she kept to herself.

She was in her fourth year when the rumours started to reach Thessia. She remembered hearing classmates discussing the news. The Human Spectre Commander Shepard had been arrested for killing over three hundred Batarians. Shepard had claimed that she did so to stop an invasion by some Aliens named Reapers. Elysia wasn't sure if she believed the Spectre, but then if she had not been trustworthy the council would not have chosen her.

Elysia had never met a Human so she really had no opinion on them. She knew that most of the Turians she knew did not think much of them and most of the other races though of them as bullies and self-serving. She had been surprised that they had actually been granted a seat on the council when some other races have been petitioning for the spot for so long. She was also surprised when they had named a Human Spectre. Shepard had saved the Citadel and the Council; she could not have been that bad.

She never really formed an opinion on the matter, leaving that for her to decide once she left Thessia and started to travel. She wanted to meet a few Humans first before she reached a decision. However she had never had the chance; the war started and communication with Earth was terminated. No one really knew what was happening. Not wanting to panic Thessia continued on as if nothing was happening.

It was two days before her graduation that that the leaders of Thessia decided it was time to take action. They had declared everyone under the age of 100 and a select few others were to be ushered into shuttles and sent to various destinations across the Galaxy in an effort to preserve their people.

Elysia remembered fighting with her mother. Tolema had been drafted back into the Commandos and Elysia wanted to go with her. It was what she was trained for, it was not her fault she was too young. She could fight with the best of them, she knew she could. Her mother would hear nothing of it.

The Reapers hit the same day Elysia was scheduled to leave. She would never forget the sounds, the horns of destruction; the sound the Reapers made when they were killing millions. She also remembered the screaming, the explosions and the amount of dead just sprawled out on the street.

She and her group had to fight to get to their shuttle. Her mother helped them and together Tolema and Elysia moved. They fought well together, one closing spots in the defence that the other might have opened, finishing off the other's attacks. They had managed to get everyone to the shuttle and when she least expected it her mother turned to her and kissed her on the forehead.

"May the Goddess watch over you as you watch over them," she whispered. "I love you."

And then she was gone, Elysia never saw her mother again.

The sound she heard that day was mimicked in the shuttle now as it plummeted to the planet they had been orbiting. The large Krogan beside her had been quick and thankfully so or she would have been dead. His big armoured arm reached across and grabbed her belt even before she had time to react and pulled it across her chest and lap, helping her to lock it in place.

The shuttle had been full of all sorts of thing that had now become projectiles, including those that had not managed to belt themselves in. she was hit hard by something round and it felt like a bullet hitting her on the shoulder. To her surprise the grumpy Krogan grabbed hold of her and covered her head. In return she placed a barrier around them. It would not help with the sudden end to the fall they were taking, but it would keep the projectiles away.

She watched in sickening horror as bodies flew everywhere and she was more than aware that three of them were children. She felt sick to her stomach. When they hit the ground the first time she felt as though a hammer had just hit her spine. They bounced another couple times before the shuttle finally stopped moving. She choked back her vomit as she removed her belt. She could not help but look at the carnage and think back to the day she was forced to flee her home world.

"What do we do now?" She asked the Krogan. She rubbed the shoulder where the object hit her. It hurt something fierce but she fought back the urge to start crying about it. She needed to stay strong.

"Well, getting out of this shuttle is a good start." The large Alien said. She nodded slowly and turned to the Asari on the other side of the aisle. The Asari closest to the isle stare up at the roof, her eyes open, some small silver object imbedded into her throat, she was obviously dead.

"Are you all right?" She asked the other Asari and she reached down to help her get her belt off. She had obviously heard when the Krogan shouted to everyone to get their belts on.

"I think so," the woman replied. Elysia extended her hand and helped her over the departed woman.

The Krogan was banging at the door to the shuttle and eventually forced it open as Elysia went back for the human who seemed unconscious. As she reached out to check for a pulse he moaned and grabbed her hand.

"Right there, kid, I can get out myself," He said. She looked to him and the large gash on his forehead. She stood back for a second and watched as he struggled to stand up. Just as he was just about on his feet he fell back down.

She reached out and helped him up, using her biotics slightly to lift him from his seat. He was not a light man and much taller than she was. Looking at him as she helped she thought that he was hansom. It could have been part biased since he was actually the first human she had ever touched. She figured he was older because of the blonde stubble that littered his face. She always associated facial hair on humans with age. His hair hung down to his shoulders the light blonde mop was streaked with the blood from his injury.

The large Krogan was checking on some of the others in the shuttle but other than the ones that were already outside and the three of them it did not look hopeful. She walked the man out of the shuttle and helped him to get down on the ground beside the other Asari. The two Turians were also sitting outside of the shuttle.

She turned back as the Krogan emerged from the wreckage and moved towards them. "This is it." He said finally.

Elysia nodded and moved away from the group, she held her sore shoulder with her good hand. The pain was starting to get worse.

The shuttle had crashed in the middle of some hill. She could see a large body of water not far from the bottom of the hill and in the other direction a forest slowly grew; she could see it thicken further in. As she looked out into water she sat down, bringing her thighs to her chest and holding them with her good arm. She rested her forehead on her knees and let the whole incident replay in her head.

Her thoughts went to the children that had been killed, that was the hardest part to handle. She was not truly attuned to the aging of humans but they were very young, infants. They would never grow older; never have children of their own. She thought to her mother and felt the pain in her heart as she wished she was here now comforting her. She took a deep breath, not wanting to cry in front of the strangers behind her.

"Those vending machines had dextro paste in them, that should hold you for a while," She heard the Krogan say. She turned back to her new found company; slowly she untangled herself and stood up. She moved back over to the group.

"I think we have to think long term," the other Asari spoke up. Her voice was so soft and soothing.

"What does that mean?" Elysia asked. The Krogan nodded at the question.

"She means they won't be coming for us," the older Turian spoke up.

"Why wouldn't they come for us?" She was starting to panic.

"Because if we are lost there will be a media frenzy and some bad press, eventually with good marketing it will be like nothing ever happened. They will claim they are doing everything in their power to find us but there probably won't even be a search." The Turian explained. "If they find us there will still be media frenzy but this time it will come with lawsuits and all sorts of headaches. They would have to explain why their shuttle was even near this uncharted planet and why it was trying to grab a satellite. With us out of the picture no one will ever know what happened and it will be chalked up to a bad pilot error."

Elysia looked from the Turian to the Krogan; it was the human that spoke up however. "He's right, the Allied forces will get involved but I am sure they will be pointed in the wrong direction. Pitne For has been in the business a long time. He knows when to cut his loses. The man rubbed his stubble. "So we're screwed."

"Well there's water and food," Elysia tried to seem positive. One of the things she had been trained was to never give up, it almost seemed as though that was exactly the direction this group was heading it.

"Yeah for a third of us," The human countered. It was quiet for a few moments and the older Asari spoke.

"Well from what I understand we have quite a bit of dextro amino paste. I saw at least two machines full of it and that doesn't include what they would have in storage. I suggest we do not just jump to hasty conclusions until we figure out what we are up against."

"I have seeds," The older Turian said.

"My father was going to retire and move to Earth, he wanted to start a farm so he had a bunch of seed in storage. They were in stasis so they should have survived the crash."

"See we just need to work together and everything will be ok," the older woman smiled, "I am Dharti Dhana, yes my mother had a sense of humour."

Elysia smiled, she liked this woman, "I'm Elysia Grant," she added to the introductions and everyone jumped in. The Human was Keith Olsen, the Krogan was Tanith, no clan name given and the older Turian was Laius Ludvik and his son was Remes.

"I will go and clean out the shuttle," Tanith said. "I'll get our luggage and Ill haul out the vending machines. I don't suppose anyone's an engineer?"

"I dabble but I don't think I can repair a shuttle, not this one anyway," Remes answered.

"This one is beyond repair," Olsen added. He crossed his arms over his chest and looked around. He kept eyeing the shuttle.

"We don't need to repair it, but it would be nice if we could get some power out of it." Tanith explained.

"What about natives?" Elysia said suddenly remembering the pilot saying they were not allowed to land because of the primitive culture. Everyone seemed to think about that as it was quiet for a long moment.

"It will be hard to avoid them when we know nothing about them," Dharti said.

"I can go and scout, see if I can find any civilization," Remes volunteered.

"Oh, I can go with him," Elysia did not want to be left out of a little bit of adventure. It beat carrying around luggage and vending machines.

"Sounds like a plan," Tanith said and moved to the shuttle. Elysia followed and waited as the Krogan forced open the door to the storage area.

"You are following me?" Tanith said, Elysia had the distinct impression the large Krogan did not like her, even if he had save her in the shuttle.

"I have my weapons in the storage, I figure if we are going on into some strange forest to look for Natives we know nothing about we might want to have some defence."

"I thought you were a Commando, don't they usually have biotics, don't they like learn to fight for years upon years."

Elysia could not help but feel somewhat insulted; this big lug was making fun of her. "It wasn't for me," she lied now, defending her own honour. "The Turian is unarmed and last I checked Turian biotics were almost non-existent."

"Oh," the Krogan backed off, "Good call."

She made a clicking sound as she moved past him into the storage bay. The luggage that had not been tied down was thrown all over the place. It took a few moments but she found her bag. Inside were her armour and her pistol with some spare heat sinks and ammunition. She sighed, if they were indeed trapped on this planet they would certainly need to find natural weapons.

She looked to her armour for a long period of time and decided against wearing it. She had her barriers to help her in a pinch.

"So you really an Asari Commando," the Krogan asked. It was too late though, Elysia was already insulted. She simply stared at the Krogan for a few minutes before leaving the storage area. She moved over to Remes and handed him the pistol and ammo.

"My father wants to bury the others. He has some farming supplies in storage, a shovel I think, so for now I say two hours out in that direction," he pointed into the forested area, "and then back, unless it starts to get dark before that."

"Sounds good," She looked back to the shuttle and shivered, she personally did not want to go back inside.

"First time seeing the dead like that?" Remes asked with a gentle voice.

"No," Elysia answered in a low voice, "It's the first time I've seen dead children."

Remes nodded and placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder then turned back to the others. He watched as the Human came out of the shuttle with the deceased Asari in his arms. He shook his head. "Ok we're going to head out; we should be back in four hours."

The older Turian moved over and placed his forehead on Remes in a show of affection, Elysia turned away to give them some privacy. She could not help but think of her mother, "You be careful and come back."

"Always Father," Remes looked out to the others his eyes resting on the Human, "You watch your back, I have a bad feeling about some of these people."

Elysia could not help but follow his gaze to Keith who had placed the woman on the ground and then took his shirt off as he grabbed a shovel the Krogan had obviously found. He certainly was in fine shape. She wondered what the Turian saw that she did not, was it just the old Turians hate human issue, she didn't know. She decided not to ask.

"Ready?" She said breaking the silence. Remes nodded and turned back to her.

"You sure you don't want the pistol?" He asked, she smiled to him and raised a glowing hand.

"I have my pistol right here," she said with a slight brag in her voice. Remes laughed.

"So you do." He said and they began to walk up the hill towards the thick forest.


	3. Chapter 3

OOC: Quick edit in the second chapter cause one of my valued readers pointed out that there are indeed Turian Biotic, and if anyone read the first chapter early on, I changed it alot

The war had left its mark on everyone. Keith did not believe that there was not a person out there that had not lost someone to the damn Reapers, except maybe the Salarians. He had lost the only person he had ever loved and cared about; he had lost the woman he was going to marry.

Casey had been a beautiful woman, inside and out. He had never forgotten how lucky he was to have found her; she made him a better person. They had met while racing for a taxi when they both opened different doors to get in. Keith's usually response would have been to just jump and tell the other person to get out. He never really played well with others. However as he turned to do that he paused as he looked into her face.

It was not just her stunning emerald green eyes, or her beautiful shapely lips that had drawn his attention but it was something in the way she smiled at him as she sat down despite him already being in the back.

"It's a tie," she said with a little giggle. He had raised a brow but had been speechless, "You don't mind?"

He recovered quickly though and looked straight ahead, "That depends on where you're going," he responded.

"I was heading to the Winter Garden," She said and he turned to look at her again. That was when he realised she was wearing a lovely red dress with a single strap reaching over her left shoulder, Her blonde hair was tied up in some cute looking style he would never know the name of. That was the second he knew he wanted to know more about this woman. He could never explain why except that it was a feeling deep down. He was going in the opposite direction of the Winter garden and it was actually quite a bit out of his way.

"Sure, not a problem," he said and smiled back to her he had instantly regretted not shaving that morning. In contrast to the lovely lady he was dressed no better than a bum, wearing a green army jacket and black pants. He had last washed his hair two days ago and he was suddenly self-conscious about how it looked. He had been drinking the night before and had planned on repeating the experience this night as well. A deter to some stuffy Theatre really would not hurt him.

She smiled again and turned to the driver. "Winter garden," she said and activated her Omni to pay the fare. "So hi, my name is Casey."

"Keith," he said simply and leaned a bit away from her.

"Keith, I like that name," she said looking at him. "Has anyone ever told you, you have wonderful eyes?"

Keith would never forget that day, or any of the days after as they got to know each other. He had never been able to figure out what a classy woman like her ever saw in a lowly grunt like him. She liked to tease him and tell him it was all about the sex, but he knew she loved him. She always made sure she told him that, as often as possible.

Keith looked to the ground now as he jammed the shovel into it, throwing the dirt onto a pile just beyond the edge. He had no idea what this planet was, but right now it was hot. He paused for a second to stretch his back and his eyes rested on the Asari he was digging the hole for. He had no idea of what her name was but she had been kind to him. She had gotten him to open up slightly while waiting for the shuttle to depart.

He hated the Asari; as a matter of fact he was not the biggest fan of anything alien. As far as he was concerned he wished that Earth had never found the Mass Effect relay. He blamed the whole relay thing for all of his family's problems. If Humans had not found the relays his parents would not have moved to a colony planet. His father would not have been lost in the Eezo factory explosion that had pretty much wiped out a large number of his colony. His mother would not have been exposed and he would have been born a normal child.

Instead Keith had never known his parents. His father had been working in the factory that exploded and his mother died shortly after he was born. He was shipped off to some facility for the children that had survived. There he had watched as many of the other children got sick and eventually died. By he was finished his "home schooling" there had only been eight of them left. The colony had over a thousand people in it at one point.

He was only eleven when his biotics first manifested. The Alliance had started training him how to use and control them immediately. When he was eighteen he left the "School for Gifted Youngsters" and moved out into the real world. He joined the Alliance but only lasted a year before he grew tired of how the other races treated the Humans. When the alliance didn't do anything about that he moved on to Cerberus. They had no problems taking him under their wings. They quickly set him up with level five implants and when he was ready he became one of their top agents.

For three years Keith led several different units and was involved in more acts of sabotage and espionage then he cared to even admit. It wore him down quickly. It was during his time with Cerberus he had met Casey.

He had been happy with his life and job until the Reapers showed. The whole universe had found out what the Illusive Man had been up to. Then he realized the Cerberus was not joining the Allies, they were actually working against them. This disgusted him and he and several other Cerberus officer left to join the war.

When the Asari had sat beside him he had been tempted to stand up and walk away. She turned and smiled at him and asked him if he had the time. From there they went on to discuss quite a few thing that surprised him. He was usually a more private person but talking to this woman felt so natural. He almost felt as though he was talking to Casey. He had not even known what she had done until they separated and moved onto the shuttle. It was too bad she had been killed, not that he would ever admit that to anyone.

He continued to dig in the hot sun as the others moved to empty the shuttle and take stock of what they had. He listened as they discussed the amount of food and the issue with dextro amino food. How they would have to plant more.

The Krogan seemed to be the only other one doing any of the real physical labour. He lifted the whole vending machines outside of the shuttle and ripped them open. Keith wondered what a Krogan was doing on the shuttle. They had all become scarce since the genophage was cured. He figured they were all on Tuchunka mating like bunnies. He figured it must be one hell of an orgy on the planet of Krogan.

The large alien approached him and handed him a bottle of water. He paused in his digging to take a drink.

"That hole's only big enough for one person," the Krogan said.

"That's right," Keith replied and looked up to him.

"There's a lot more people inside the shuttle needing to be buried."

"I really don't give a rat's ass about the rest of the people inside," he replied, took another drink and set the bottle on the opposite side of the dirt pile and continued to dig. He was almost around the four foot mark.

"I don't either human," the Krogan said, "but we have need of the shuttle right now and it's very hot on this planet. We don't get them buried then it's going to start to smell something awful."

"Then build a fire and burn them. It might smell for a little bit but then we won't have to worry about it."

"And her," He nodded to the Asari.

"I'm going to bury her, if you don't mind."

The Krogan looked at him for a long while longer. Usually, of all the different races he minded the Krogan the least. They were blunt and to the point and took no shit from anyone. He could admire that. They had the strength and size to back them up. This Krogan was getting on his nerves. The whole trip the large alien kept looking at him as if he wanted to kill him and Keith had done nothing to the creature. Well, he had eventually started to glare.

"Fine," the Krogan said finally, "I like the fire idea; we'll work on that."

Keith looked up from the hole at the alien and nodded. He bit his lip and waited then watched as the Krogan moved off to the others. He climbed out of the hole and moved toward the deceased woman and knelt down beside her.

"Well, I guess I never got the chance to tell you just how much I hate Aliens," He said as he picked her up and returned to the hole. "But you were different, I liked you and if you see Casey in your heaven, you remind her how much I loved her." Gently he laid her on the earth and crossed her arms over her chest.

He looked to her for a long time, he felt as though he should do more or say more but the sad fact was all he knew was her name, Mian, not even a last name. He knew she had just entered her Matron years and that she had two children.

He would have said a prayer but he most certainly did not believe in his God let alone hers. He simply sighed, took another long drink of water, and then climbed out of the hole. He set on shoveling the dirt back into the grave, which was decidedly easier then digging it out. As he did he could see the remaining Turian and Asari starting to collect wood to build a fire. The Krogan was making some sort of housing for the blaze.

Well, he had crashed with a particularly busy little group. Too bad they were all aliens. He shook his head and moved over to one of the vending machine the Krogan had brought out and pulled out a beer. He downed it quickly and gathered another and looked over to the large body of water. Being human he thought of Earth's lakes and oceans and wondered which this was. It certainly did look refreshing after digging for the last couple of hours.

He moved to his luggage and grabbed his duty belt and pistol. He started walking.

"Where you going human?" the Krogan called out to him

"Where ever I damn well please, Krogan," he replied.

"You know there is work to be done."

Keith smiled slightly to himself, "I sure do, Captain, I just really don't care. I'm hot and tired and I'm going to go and cool myself in that big old body of water down there. Then I'm going to check out those trees over there and see if the fruit hanging from it is edible and won't kill us because really, I don't want to get stuck eating paste like that poor bastard," He pointed to Laius. "Also there's a big chunk of the satellite down there," He squinted and pointed. "It forced us here we might as well get a good look at it."

Tanith looked down to the water then glared at him. He could see there was going to be no love lost between them, he really did not care. Without saying any more he walked down the hill to the water.

The water was refreshing and salty so he guessed it would be like an ocean. Which meant their water supply was now limited until they found some fresh water, maybe a river or a small lake. He was more than certain there would be at least a river somewhere. The shuttle should have water purifiers; they just needed to work on finding a water supply.

He had swum naked not worring about the others, they were either all working diligently on burning the dead or scouting. He had no towel to dry off with so instead he took a walk to the piece of the satellite he had spoken of. He strapped his gun belt on just in case and carried his clothes.

It was a large piece, larger than he had thought from where he had spotted it on the hill. It was even still smoking slightly. He reached out with a finger and touched it; it was warm but not too hot to touch. He nodded slightly; well it was certainly a piece of a satellite. He used the barrel of his pistol to move a few things around. He spotted a small black box. He knew what that was, it was the data recorder.

"Well, I bet that will catch me a pretty sum of cash if I ever get off this rock," he said and started to work on digging it out. He used damaged parts as tools as best her could. It took a bit of time and imagination but he eventually pulled it out. It looked unharmed and he could not help but wonder what kind of information was even on it.

"Did you find something, Keith?" came Dharti's voice. Keith stood up straight and looked to her, barely seven feet from where he stood. His mouth hung open for a bit and he looked down to his nakedness. He smiled slightly.

"No, but apparently you did," He said all cocky, he knew he was in good shape and he knew just how endowed he was, no one said modesty was his fine trait. He leaned against the satellite.

Dharti smiled back at him "Perhaps if I was looking it would be quite a find, but as it is I am not much of a small treasure hunter."

All he heard was small, "What, wait, small," his anger raised quickly as he grabbed his pants and started to put them on. "I'll have you know that I have impressed many a woman with this treasure, lady."

"I do not doubt that," Dharti laughed slightly, "I meant no insult."

"Yeah well, none taken," he retorted. When he was half dressed he looked to her as she handled the box. "Just remember who found that."

"I am sure that would actually mean something as well if we were not all stranded on some uncharted planet together."

"I'm not going to get anywhere being all macho with you am I?" he asked. She smiled and moved around the satellite.

"There's a symbol here, I wonder what it means," She said pushing at the hunk of metal. Keith thought about letting her struggle and walking away with his find.

He took a deep breath and moved to help her. "Don't you have some sort of magical biotic traits to move this?" He asked as they both strained.

"Not all of us are adept with biotics, I'm about at the parlour trick level," she replied. They both pushed together and the hunk of metal finally turned. Keith's eyes widened.

"It's kind of pretty, I wonder what kind of people made this?" Dharti said her fingers tracing over the swirling design that spread into wings.

Humans, Keith thought to himself. He knew that symbol; he had worked for that symbol. It was Alpha protocol, a research company that was only slightly better than Cerberus in their morals. He grabbed the data recorder up.

"Yeah, I wonder," Keith echoed and took her wrist. "Come on, we should get back up with the others."

"You're right, it will certainly be interesting to see what kind of data is in that recorder," the Asari said and smiled. Keith forced himself to smile back and could not help but look around, expecting to see armed troops flying out from all over at any moment.

"Yeah, no kidding," He said simply as they made their way back to camp.


	4. Chapter 4

One thing about this new planet was that it was so hot. From the moment Remes stepped, or rather fell unceremoniously, out of the shuttle he felt the heat. Under the blanket of the forest it was slightly cooler but not by much. The trees were huge, larger than any trees he had ever seen before. The roof of the forest spread out and intertwined with each other, branches from one tree melding into another. It was like a long network and he found it beautiful.

Because of the trees only small brush and moss grew on the forest floor and some purple flower that obviously liked it dark. The trunks of the trees were so think at times he could have sworn that a shuttle could have flown through them. The only problem was the bugs. With the mix of dimness and heat there were two different bugs now that had tried to draw his blood. Elysia seemed to be having an even harder time as they seemed to really like her.

He moved his gaze up from the root infested ground to look up to the Asari now. She certainly was full of energy. She had not stopped since she volunteered.

Remes thought she was pretty but then he though most Asari were born that way, like it was some natural defence. It was certainly much easier to hurt or kill and Turian or a Krogan cause they were not the most aesthetically pleasing race, but Asari, they tended to always remind you of a love lost, a sister or a mother. Most races in the Milky Way were brought up with similar morals and men not hitting women seemed to be one of them.

However there were a lot of women out there that could hold their own. He had fought beside quite a few of them on Earth.

He rarely talked to them though. The opposite sex always made him incredibly nervous. He had no idea why, he and his sister had always been extremely close and he never had problems talking to her. Of course to him, for most of his life she wasn't a girl, she was part of the family and more of a boy then some of his friends. As a matter of fact, even though she was younger, she was able to beat up most of his friends. She had always been pretty tough.

She had died on Earth. Her unit had been in London and assigned to the main attack. The whole unit was wiped out by a single beam from a Reaper. They had never even had a body to bring home. People told some great stories about her and how she had helped them build courage and how she was a great motivational speaker but her death had been so blunt. He had tried to find some glory in it but really she had never even had a fighting chance against something like that. Her death still bothered him, six and a half years later.

He had been on Earth as well and assigned in London but he had been taken out of the attack earlier when his unit had been ambushed. It had been the most intense three days of his life as he and his unit struggled to get back to some semblance of safety. They had all been injured on way or another and he and the other Turians had very little food since the building on Earth really did not have a steady supply Dextro amino foods. The other non Turians in his unit had faired only slightly better.

He had been shot, three times in his lower back and, yes, buttocks while he had been trying to get a Krogan to safety. He would never forget the jokes flying rampant about him taking a bullet in the ass. It was actually the only thing that made the whole experience slightly bearable.

Elysia led the two of them, she had insisted on it. She climbed over a fairly large root and grunted as she jumped down, still favouring that left shoulder. He figured she was in more pain then she let on but he was quietly working up the nerve to ask her. Hell, they had not really talked at all since setting out.

He climbed over the root and continued to follow her trying to figure out what to say. They had made their introductions and that was about it. She looked back every now and then to make sure he was still there and marking the areas they passed. He opened his mouth a couple times to say something but would decide against it. It had been a very long hour and a half.

"So we're you on Earth during the war?" He said finally. It was a common question these days between adults. She turned to him with a look that he could only take as annoyance. "Guess not."

"No, I never got to go to Earth," She said after a few moments. She didn't offer more and Remes was kind of stuck for what to say next. He scratched the back of his neck as the two of them climbed over another large root.

"Well, I guess, uh, so you fought on Thessia?" He asked hopeful. She looked back to him with a pained expression on her face.

"No," She said simply, and now he remembered why he didn't talk to females, things like this always happened.

"Well, umm, ok, sorry," He lowered his head and concentrated on where his feet were going. They walked for a little bit more and he suddenly realized that there was light peeking through the roof. He looked up and then around, the trees were gradually getting smaller and less entwined with each other. He could also, distinctly hear water, rushing water.

They both seemed to sense a change as their paced picked up a notch or two. As they came close to a clearing where the trees were much thinner he watched as the Asari moved slightly to the left of a developing path and then disappeared.

"Elysia!" he shouted and rushed forward. She had found some sort of a trap, which was alarming in itself. That meant they were not alone. He looked down into the pit to where the Asari was sprawled, and he could not help but laugh slightly.

"I am glad you find this funny," She said up to him, obviously angered by his reaction.

"I'm sorry but did you actually look at your predicament," He said and then pointed at the several spikes, none of which she hit. She looked around and laughed slightly herself as she realised she probably could have been killed.

"I'm sorry," He reached down as far as she could as she got to her feet. He did notice that she did not use her left arm, he helped her climb out. "I laugh somewhat inappropriately at times when I'm stressed."

"I see," she said through clenched teeth.

"Yeah and you know, the crash and the strange planet, little stressful and," he paused and looked to her. "Ok," He said taking a breath ready to assert himself, "You need to sit down and let me see that arm, there is obviously something wrong."

Elysia looked at him for a few minutes, obviously deciding if she was going to listen to him or not, but the pain in her shoulder was too much. "It's my shoulder something hit it when we were crashing."

"Well let's take a look," he crossed his arms over his chest

"It's just a bruise, I'll be ok," she said a little bit too defensively.

"You can barely use it, you certainly can't be much of a biotic Goddess if you can't use your hands," He said getting more comfortable when he realized she was a lot like his sister. She giggled slightly.

"I like that, Elysia, the Biotic Goddess, although I am sure Siari would strike me dead," she sat down on the root they had climbed over earlier.

He moved over to help her get her arm out of the shirt without exposing her. What he saw he really didn't like. It was not just a simple bruise, not that he was totally in sync with Asari physiology but he was more than certain that the discolouring was not normal and it was deep purple and it spread from her shoulder to her upper arm. "That really doesn't look good. Maybe we should put it in a sling or something."

"Maybe when we get back," she agreed. He nodded and helped her get the shirt back on.

"It's too bad one of us was not a Doctor, we know nothing about his planet, I do have some medigel and there were a few packs on shuttle but that won't help a bruise."

"Well, it's not like we were planning for a crash." She said and moved back to the trap she had fallen into. "Well, I would say this would mean we are not alone."

"Yeah, but pretty primitive if you ask me, with the Reapers already being through here I'm going to guess very early evolution."

"Should we go one until we find out who these people are?" she asked.

"We really don't know how far that would take us. This could very easily be an old abandoned trap, the wood looks older and some of the spikes have fallen, the area was well grown over," he moved further down the establish path, "What concerns me more than that is that the trap was made over a traveled area."

She looked to the trap and the path and nodded, "They were trying to catch people, but obviously not us."

"But who, and should we be worried about it?"

"Well, we should be worried about everything. We know nothing about this planet and those who may live on it," she chuckled and snorted at her own joke even before telling it, "We could be considered a main course to these people."

He looked to her and suddenly his shyness returned. He found the snort she made very cute and suddenly he was not talking to his sister anymore. "Umm, let's hope not. I heard running water I think we should find it."

"I really hope it's cold, I could use a cool down," she said, as they walked the sound of rushing water grew louder, "A quick swim would be great."

"Well, I'll let you do the swimming. The Turian method of swimming looks an awful lot like drowning," he said and she smiled.

"It's because you're heavy." She said bluntly, he couldn't help his mandibles twitching slightly at the insinuation, even though he was not sure what the insinuation was. It just sort of sounded like an insult. "No, I mean your metallic exoskeleton is heavy which make you heavy which makes you sink as opposing light and floaty."

"I never really thought of it, I just know I don't do well in water," He stated simply.

"I'm sorry if I offended you, I didn't mean to, I just have this bad habit of saying things and not thinking them through first."

"No offence, you're right, we Turians tend to sink," he said. She smiled to him as the forest finally cleared and the found themselves half way down a large water fall. It was at least twenty feet across and falling quite strong. He watched as Elysia moved to the edge of the cliff and looked down he followed but did not go quite as close. The water below was much calmer, almost serene, like an oasis. A wide river floated out from the falls back towards where the shuttle had crashed. They were about fifteen feet up from the water.

"Wow," the Asari said, it was certainly beautiful. Remes could actually see him having a date here, not that they would go swimming, but it was romantic.

Before he could even reply a set of boots came towards him, followed by a shirt and a pair of pants. He managed to catch a boot and the shirt but the rest fell to his feet and he stared with his mouth open. Elysia stood in just her undergarments and before he could even protest she was taking a running jump.

"Elysia!" he shouted and moved to the edge on his belly, dropping all of the clothes in the process. He looked down his eyes searching as the rings from where she had hit the water were expanding. He could hear his heart pounding in his chest, "Elysia!"

He watched for what seemed like forever until the Asari came up for air. She shouted and laughed and he felt himself get slightly angry. What was she thinking, what if the water had been shallow, or what if it had a strong under current?

She was shouting something up to him but he could not hear it over the roaring of the water. He pushed away from the edge and gathered her clothes. She quickly found a way down and twenty minutes later he was standing beside the water, hands on his hips. She swam in close to him.

"You look like my mother," she said.

"You gave me a heart attack, what…"

"Everything was fine," She said treading water, "it's a perfect temperature. You know, not too cold to run into and once you're in you don't want to get out. You should at least wade, get your feet wet, oh and its fresh water so we can boil it and drink it."

He looked to her and decided not to point out the dextro thing, there were still supplies in the shuttle he and his father would be able to use.

"I'll be ok over here," he said still standing with his hands on his hip. He was still trying to calm himself. He would have lectured her except he had done some pretty stupid stunts when he was younger. He was not sure how old she was, because all Asari looked the same to him, but it was becoming more obvious that she was pretty young. He placed her clothes down near the shore and moved over to a rock beside the water, he could not help but wonder what the water would feel like. She swam closer to him.

"Everything is so large here," she pointed out. It had been a passing thought in his mind early but he had ignored it. "The trees, this water fall and even this water, it's a lot deeper than it should be for a river, and it's very soothing for my shoulder."

"Maybe there are some great water creatures that live here, one's that love to eat blue creature," he said to her and smiled. She laughed and splashed water at him.

"Your just jealous because you can't swim," she splashed him.

"I forgot my swim suit," he smiled, "Go ahead get it out of your system and we should head back. At least we found something useful."

She smiled and floated on her back. "I could really see setting up a home in and place like this. Right up there on the ledge I jumped off, swimming every day, lying around in the sun."

"I don't know," he looked up, "It would get kind of boring don't you think?"

When she didn't answer he looked to the water and she was gone. He sighed and rolled his eyes and waited for her to come up for air. He decided she was a bit on the crazy side. He bit his lip as he waited. She seemed to be young and probably had very healthy lungs, but she was certainly under for a long period of time. He felt a slight knot start to form in his stomach and pulled the pistol from its magnetic holster on his hip. He stood up and looked down into the water.

Suddenly there was a cluster of bubbles from the middle of the stream and a large creature burst from it with an Asari in its maw. She had erected a barrier forcing the creature's mouth to stay open but in doing so she was now jammed in there, now they knew why the water was deeper than usual.

It was almost like those crocodiles a friend had told him about on earth except a lot bigger. It was a blue green in colour and had two long rows of very sharp looking teeth. He took aim immediately and fired hitting the creature near its eye. It roared and released the Asari but then landed on her as it crashed back into the water, "Elysia!"

His eyes searched the water which was almost calm again. He wanted to go in and search for her but it would do neither of them any good. He kept the gun pointed where the creature had disappeared. Suddenly there were bubbled again and Elysia came up gulping for air. She swam quickly to the rock and Remes pulled her out. She bent over breathing heavily, trying to catch her breath.

"Are you ok?" he asked. She looked up but remained bent over puffing.

"It came, from nowhere," she managed to huff out.

"It had legs we can't stay here," Remes reminded her, she nodded and he moved and grabbed her clothing. They moved away from the water and into the arms of the forest before they stopped long enough for Elysia to get dressed. She patted him on the shoulder.

"That was some great shooting," she said to him, "thanks."

"Yeah well, it was quick thinking with the biotic too."

She looked to him for a long moment then bent down to lace her boots. "I was ninety eight when the Reapers hit Thessia. I wanted to stay and fight with my mother who was a Commando. I had already trained for the position; I know I could have fought. The Asari government had decided that all Asari under a hundred would be moved off planet." She stood up and took a breath before continuing. "I was shipped off somewhere to preserve the Asari culture, so I missed the war."

The looked to each other for a long moment, he realized that she had she had just revealed something pretty important to him, something that obviously still left its mark on her. No one, except his sister, had ever really confided in him before. Turians were not known for that sort of thing. He nodded. "I'm sorry," he said and grinned slightly, "If it's any consolation I got shot in the ass."

She smiled and then laughed and he could not help but smile back, well as much as a Turian could. "Ok you win." She said still laughing as they started to make their way back to the shuttle.


	5. Chapter 5

**OK, I just realized that I pretty much have the same title as someone else writing for Mass Effect. I have been debating on changing the name of the story but am kinda attached to this one. Just wondering what anyone else thinks and if they can think of anything better, just let me know.**

They day had been unusually long and they had cleaned up quite a lot throughout the majority. Non one knew anything about the planet, nor how long it had been day before they crashed. How long were the nights, did they get cold? They had decided to put the fire out at dawn. They just knew that the trees were abnormally large and that there was some huge creature in the water that could swallow a small Asari whole.

Tanith had to admit, she had gotten a bit of a chuckle out of the story. She had really figured the young Asari was a complete liar and didn't have any talent but the Turian seemed rather impressed, and Turians were warriors or at least she had always figured they were. She had known quite a few, even at her young age and she had pretty much respected them. Both Remes and his father had seen war so they would know.

She had spent most of the gutting the shuttle and making a makeshift shelter. She had helped burn the bodies and then organized the food. When they had returned Remes had gone to work to make them some sort of generator so they would have power. They seemed to work well together, which was a good thing since they had no idea if they will ever be saved. The only stick in the mud was the damn human and that would have figured.

He'd been sitting by himself fiddling with that black box he had recovered from the satellite and had not bothered to help anyone else. Tanith had half a mind to kick him out of their little shelter, but then sometime knowing where a potential problem lay was better than to have it come back and haunt you. She would keep an eye on him but she certainly didn't trust him. Now that everything was secure and safe and they would have a safe place to sleep, they needed to consider the food issue.

The Turians had already started rationing. Laius figured with their current supply they were looking at nine months, a year if they really spread it out. He did however, have those seeds, with that he could sustain them forever, although they would miss a few nutrients that their bodies required. Their time on the planet came with a time limit and that seemed to make everyone sad. Last thing they wanted to do was lose anyone else.

The rest of them could pretty much eat whatever they found that would not poison them. The human had found some large fruit hanging from the large leaf tree near the shore. He had said they looked like coconuts except coconuts were not red. After some examining it was found that it should be edible by the four of them. The only problem was it tasted like crap. At least to her, but then she always liked her meat. She wondered if that large water creature would taste good.

Meat would not be a problem. All of them except the older Asari were capable hunters, they would just have to go out and find a creature they could eat, preferably not one that would try and eat them back. They also had six pistols, three assault rifles, three shotguns and one mantis. They had several heat sinks and quite a bit of ammo but they would have to ration that as well. They still had no idea what the native life would be like.

They had decided that in the morning Remes and Elysia would make another longer trip. The consensus was four hours in each direction. Tanith and Laius would take a trip as well and the human well he had wished them luck. Tanith was not sure he wanted Keith alone with their rations. Dharti would stay as well, but she was merely a teacher. If Keith decided to do something stupid Tanith was not sure she could defend herself. The teacher swore she could but then admitted her biotics were not he most powerful, actually more along the level of parlour tricks.

For now they simply watched the day give into the night.

Tanith had spotted a moon later in the day and had to admit she was surprised when a second on appeared as well. The second one was red though and it made and interesting tint. They had decided not to have a fire at night. It would be more visible and attract more attention than during the day. Instead they all seemed to spread out and were lost in their own little world.

Tanith herself could not believe her luck. She had wanted to get away, but not like this and not forever. She was a creature of convenience and liked to know what her food was. She liked to occasionally eat out or watch a vid. She hated most people and liked to be alone. Now she was stuck on a planet with five other that expected to speak to her, or even worse, expected her to talk back. None of them even knew she was female either.

She sat and looked into the water. It was almost camouflaged into the darkness of the night. Had it not been for the reflection of the red moon that hung quite low, one would not even know it was there.

"So if the river has pretty large creatures in it, I can just imagine what's in that great big body of water." Elysia said sitting beside her. Tanith looked at her for a long moment.

"Are you purposely trying to annoy me or are those tentacle on your head limiting the air your brain gets?" Tanith said.

"I'm not a squid, nor did we come from them," the Asari answered, "And I'm bothering you because you are the most interesting of all these people."

"You're not one of those Krogan worshippers are you. You know those that wonder of Krogan are big in all areas?"

This made Elysia laugh. "No, I know about the Krogan anatomy, we are taught about all space faring species in school. And it really doesn't mean much to an Asari. We don't look at things like that when looking for a mate. I just admire the Krogans because they are strong and they can fight and they take nothing from nobody."

"You ever hung out with a Krogan before?"

"No not really," the young girl admitted

"Might want to reserve judgment until you do," Tanith said

"So are you trying to tell me you're an ass?" Elysia smiled at her. Tanith looked at her for a long while. Some Krogans would have torn her arms off for a comment like that.

"You're pretty brave for a tiny woman," She said and smiled slightly.

"Yeah and you're pretty grumpy for a woman," Elysia looked to her. Tanith's eyes narrowed. "Relax, I didn't tell anyone. I could tell you didn't want them to know with the deep voice and all."

"How did you know?"

"When we were crashing and you reached over and put my belt on, your voice was different, higher pitch. At first I thought it was panic, but then Krogan are not meant to panic. Then I thought I would throw it out and see how you reacted and," she lifted her arms, "I'm a trained Asari Commando, we are supposed to be observant."

Tanith grunted and looked to her not sure what to do.

"Your secret is safe with me, honest. But why?"

"Did anyone ever tell you curiosity killed the Pyjak."

"Lots of things kill pyjaks, mostly Krogan. It's ok, you don't have to tell me, I won't tell the others, honest," She promised.

"You really an Asari Commando?"

"Well. I am a new Commando but I trained since I was very young. My mom didn't want me too but I wanted to be just like her," Elysia started.

"A yes or no would have been fine," Tanith laughed, "That is something you and the humans have in common, you tell people too much, you're very social creature you and they."

"I think we are all very social people in our own ways," Elysia stood and stretched. "At least the nights are warm."

"At least," Tanith agreed and watched as the Asari moved into the shuttle. The Krogan remained in her spot. She would watch the shuttle tonight and make sure it stayed safe. She was prepared for a long night.

As the moon continued to reflect off the waves Tanith could have sworn she saw something move, but then she was straining her eyes. She brought her hand up and gave them a rub and when she was done there was nothing. She simply shrugged and continued to watch.

Dharti woke with a start, on the floor of the shuttle with an arm around her. For a few minutes she panicked as her mind took a little too long to catch up with her. The crash, yes, she remembered now. That was probably why every muscle in her body now felt stiff. She liked to call it the morning after syndrome. Injuries and alcohol always hurt more the morning after. Not that she was an alcoholic, but she was known to enjoy a drink or two with colleagues and friends on occasions. Of course since the death of her wife the drinking binges had come a little more often.

She looked down to the arm around her and frowned as she looked to the human behind her. She made a face but rather than wake him and have to deal with his grumpy demeanour she rolled away and stood. She looked down and realised the human had somehow wedged himself between the younger Asari and herself. She shook her head. Keith was definitely going to be a problem.

The funny part was that he had certain traits her wife had before they had been married. When Dharti had first met Kimberly she had her own over confident swagger that one had when making up for the fact that they were insecure. She tended to hide it behind alcohol and one night affairs and was on a very destructive path. At the time Dharti had never met a human.

Kim had come to her school on Thessia to teach the Asari about the humans, their history, politic and their culture. She was an amazing teacher and great with the children, but not so much with other adults. She had this over inflated ego and often came on too strong to everyone. Dharti had disliked her immensely when they first met. Kim had done everything in her power to make the Asari uncomfortable and Dharti did everything in her power to avoid the woman. The problem was they kept clashing into one another.

One day Dharti was cleaning up her class room. It had been a late day and being a music teacher she had been in charge of planning a concert. She had started to compose a song when she heard someone crying. Kim's room was across the hall from hers and she found the human sitting on her desk. Her mother had died and she had just found out. Dharti had comforted her then invited her home for dinner. She did not want to leave the emotional human alone.

That night they had talked for a very long time. She had found that Kim had a less than ideal life. An abusive father, a mother that ignored it, Dharti was surprised that Kim had come out even partly normal from her childhood. She had also seen a side of the woman that no one had ever seen before. From then Kim began to change towards her and Dharti had begun to like the human. It was only a matter of time after that they became close and the rest was, as the humans say, history.

As she stumbled out of the shuttle into the sunlight she wondered what Keith's story was. Was there something horrible in his past he was making up for, or was he just an ass. She decided that she would reserve judgement for now.

She spotted the Krogan sitting almost in the same spot they had left him the night before and she moved over to him. She smiled. "I don't suppose you have any coffee?" She had never been a fan until Kim had introduced her to it.

"Isn't that a human thing?" Tanith asked standing.

"Yes it is, they are all addicted to it," she laughed, "Were you up all night?"

"Most of it, I nodded off a couple times but not for long," the Krogan answered. "I figured I would grab a bit of sleep now. I don't require much though."

"That sounds good," Dharti moved down to the luggage area and found her bag. "I'm just going to go down to the water and clean up a little bit."

"I'll wait for you to come back."

Dharti smiled as she pulled out her cleaning kit and a towel and headed down the hill towards the water. She had to admit she found the trees on this world to be absolutely beautiful, they were so full and some of the different colours were nice. The purple leaves mixed with green and red, she knew on Earth that the leaves changed with the seasons, she wondered if that was the same here. She smiled and began to sing a song as she moved around one of the trees and froze in her tracks.

The words of the song stuck in her throat as she looked to the spectacle before her. She wasn't quite sure of what to make of it, or the small greenish girl tied to trunk of the tree she was looking at now. She could not help but stare, she was like the Asari, two arms and two legs, similar facial feature with some facial and body paintings, but instead of crest she had quills, or something similar, long quills hanging down to her back and then small dangerous looking ones on her shoulders and the back of her upper arms.

She was beautiful, or so the Asari thought, but different looking, like the humans. She was about as tall as Elysia, maybe a little bit shorter, physically around the same age. She looked injured, but then she was tied to a tree, she couldn't imagine anyone really agreeing to something like that. Then the second question hit her, where were the people that did this to her. The native stared at her with wild terrified eyes.

"Tanith!" She called out. She moved closer to the woman, "Are you ok? We're not going to hurt you."

Then she spoke, quickly and panic filled her voice and the translator of her omni tool struggled with the translation. All it could translate was please.

"Shhhhh, it's ok," She soothed, "You need to talk slowly until the translator can figure out your language."

"Dharti, holy crap, what is that?" Tanith asked finally arriving.

"I believe it's more of a whom, and I don't know," Dharti answered, "But she's terrified."

That was a bit of an understatement, and when the large Krogan arrived the girl grew even more terrified. Dharti looked to the body markings; they were obviously tribal of some sort and the fact that she was wearing a loin cloth to cover her lower half and some hard leather item to cover her nipples. The marking spread up to her face.

Again the girl began to speak and this time the translator picked up please and tribute and Dharti looked to Tanith. "We did fall from the sky," she said and shrugged.

"We still don't know anything about her. I mean what if they chose her because she was a criminal or something. What if we release her and those quill come flying at us," Tanith said.

"We can't just leave her there," Dharti defended.

"Leave who whe…" Elysia stepped around and found them. Her eyes widened when she spotted the girl tied to the tree.

"Wow where did she come from?" The younger Asari moved closer and reached out and touched the natives arm. The native looked to her as she did but stopped her struggling. "She's terrified."

Before the other two could stop her Elysia pulled out a knife and cute the vines that held her.

"No," Tanith called as Dharti spoke at the same time.

"Wait,"

Elysia caught the girl as she fell from the tree and helped her to the ground. "She's been beaten," The Commando said. She looked down to the girl who looked up to her with frightened eyes. "Shhh, it will be ok, we'll help you."

Dharti and Tanith exchanged looks. The girl spoke again. "Please no hurt, no hurt," There was an accent there; Dharti could not quite place it.

"Who are you?" Elysia asked as she continued to cradle the injured native.

"I Varra," She whispered. "I please you." She said looking up into Elysia's eyes. The young Asari's eyes widened and she blushed, considerably.

"No, you don't have to," Elysia replied, "what do you mean?"

She looked to Dharti. "I think she was left as a tribute for us, from her people, so that we would be pleased and would not hurt them."

"Oh, Oh!" She said as she clued in, "Then we should return her and let them know we are not like that."

"We don't know anything about her or them," Tanith said. "She could be a criminal and that was why she was chosen."

Elysia looked down into the woman's very light bluish grey eyes, "Maybe it's because she is beautiful, many cultures and races sacrificed their young and beautiful to appease some god or other."

"It could be that as well. The translator will learn her language soon enough and we will know more," Dharti said gently. "We should get her back to the shuttle; see if the medigel can help fix her up."

Elysia nodded and stood up, bringing the girl with her, "It's ok; we're going to help you," she pointed to a bruise on the girls arm. "We will fix that."

"I please you?"

Elysia nodded and gave her a little smile, "You are very beautiful, but you do not need to please us," she said slowly, but it was obvious the translator was still struggling as the woman smiled.

"Good, I please you good," She said.

Tanith moved to walk beside Dharti, "I suggest we keep Keith as far away as possible," the Krogan said seriously peeking at the greenish girl holding on tightly to Elysia.


	6. Chapter 6

They all stood around the shuttle where Elysia had disappeared with the native girl. It seemed as though the little green woman had taken a liking to the Asari and refused to go with any of the others. Tanith figured that was because the Commando had cut her down without even giving it a thought, a move that really had Tanith worried.

She had thought Remes tale about the swimming and the giant creature were humorous at the time, now she found herself worried about the Asari's impulses. The girl had not even considered what kind of a threat the native would have been before cutting her down. What if it had been a trap? What if the girl had been some sort of super warrior? Maybe Elysia figured she would have been able to handle it either way, who knew.

She would have to keep a closer eye on the girl. For now though they waited, the little native had been pretty beaten up and Tanith could only imagine she fought with her people about being the "sacrifice". Not that she could blame her; it must be terrifying to be given to not only stranger, but ones that could possibly look like monsters to these people. She could only wonder what would happen if they returned her.

"This is stupid," this came from Keith, "why are we entertaining the idea of taking care of this native. I mean are we not supposed to preserve and not interfere, well this is clearly interference."

"We really did not have much choice in the matter, we did not purposely crash on this planet," Dharti defended. "I am sure a lot of natives were likely to have seen our shuttle crash."

"Besides having her with us could have its advantages," Remes said, "We don't know anything of this planet except that it's hot, had long days and shorter nights. Could this just be a season, do we need to prepare for a winter? What kind of creature is there that could swallow us whole, which are good to eat, how to kill them. Not to mention that her people are obviously afraid of us. We can learn about them before we try to contact them, that way we won't accidentally do something we regret."

"You all noticed she already has Elysia enthralled, she found our weak link pretty quickly," Keith pointed out.

"Just because she's impulsive does not make her our weak link." Dharti argued.

"She's supposed to be a Commando, are they not supposed to be well trained?" Tanith asked. "She should have known better then to just cut the woman down."

Dharti looked to the Krogan, "Elysia saw a battered and beaten woman, terrified, tied to a tree. Commandos are not impassionate. While I agree she is young, and maybe even too young for the role, I can see why she did what she did. I am actually ashamed that I did not."

"Are you kidding?" Keith looked to her, "It could have been a trap. She could have been some ninja commando warrior for all we knew."

"She wasn't, she was a hurt and terrified woman and now she is getting treatment." Dharti said simply looking back to Keith. "Just because we are afraid does not give us the right not to be compassionate. Maybe Elysia should have asked a few more questions, or maybe we should have asked a few less. It doesn't matter now. The girl is untied and in the shuttle getting the medical help she needs."

"Yeah with our medigel," Keith commented. Dharti ignored him; he huffed when she did so. Tanith simply rolled her eyes.

Not for the first time, Tanith wondered if everything would work out. The Asari and the Turians were used to working together and as long as they pulled their weight Tanith would have no problem with them. The human on the other hand, he was sleazy and hiding a few things. Tanith had no doubt he was a soldier, he stood and held himself like one. However there was something about him that screamed distrust.

The problem was Tanith was convinced he probably had the ability to take out every single one of them. She could sense that he was good at being a soldier and that he had probably seen more war then all of them put together. She would guess he was special ops, but from where she didn't know.

That was the thing with Humans, they were probably the better then most races for sneaking and sabotage and assassinations. The only ones he could think of that were better were the Drell. The Krogan were big and clunky and preferred a stand up kill. They liked it better if the kill fought back. They did not hide anything. The Turians were talented at assassinations but they rarely hide their intentions. If they killed someone you knew about it and you knew why. The Asari simply didn't just assassinate people. They considered themselves diplomats and the Vorcha well; they couldn't really sneak up on anything. They had no patients for it.

"She's is just a girl, not much older, physically, then Elysia herself. She was hurt and terrified and I commend the Asari for doing what she should to help her. Apparently she is better than the rest of us, who would have left the poor girl there," Laius spoke up calmly.

"Well I don't know about leaving, I mean if she is a tribute and she does want to please," Keith started, which won him four pair of glaring eyes. "Jesus you guys are an uptight bunch."

"They certainly are taking a long time," Remes said looking back to the door. Keith obviously had a retort for that but stopped himself.

"I think, "Dharti conceded, "that if the young Commando was in trouble we would certainly know about it. Let's just give her some more time before we go barging in and demanding answers."

Elysia had started by cleaning the dry blood away from some of the cuts the native had. She had obviously put up one hell of a fight, but then the Asari could not blame her. What kind of people would sacrifice a woman to appease something they are afraid of? Not only that but the woman was beautiful, why would they want to destroy her. Did she have parents that were worried about her, or a husband and children? Was she alone?

Elysia knew nothing of these people obviously, except the fact that they believe in the needs of the many outweighing the one, but she didn't like them. She looked to Varra, with her head hung low and the sad look in those blue eyes. They were a beautiful people and artistic, judging by the many tattoo that were about her body.

She had used the medi-gel sparingly and only on the cuts, she wished she could have done more for the bruises but they were limited on their supply and knew not, what dangers the planet would bring. When she was done she looked to the woman.

"You are not our prisoner," she stated.

"I please," Varra stated looking up and placing her hands on Elysia's thighs.

"No, you do not need to," Elysia took her hands in hers. "Where ever you come from, you are free now. If you want to return to your people, you can."

Varra jerked away and brought her knees to her chest, wrapping her arms around her legs. "No, I no go back."

At least the translator was getting much better. "I am sure they worry about you, they only did what they thought was best for everyone," Elysia said not believing a word of it. No one should have to go through what this young native was going through. Being made a tribute, sacrificed by her people, it must be a terrible feeling.

"No," Varra said has her eyes brimmed with tears, Elysia's eyes widened.

"You don't have to go back, honest, I mean we could always use someone with knowledge of this area, to help us with the layout of the land and what to look out for," she said and smiled slightly, "I was almost swallowed whole by a creature in the river yesterday."

"Iauntu," Varra said with her eyes wide, "very dangerous, but very rare."

"Figures," Elysia said rolling her own eyes. "Does it live by the waterfall?"

Varra made a face, "You swam in the water pool?"

"Yes, is there something bad?"

"Only men are allowed to swim there, that was why Iauntu attacked you."

Male dominated society, Elysia thought to herself, no wonder they were still primitive. She could only think of Keith at this point and wondered if Varra's whole society were like him. Elysia did not really know better, she had never met a human and only heard what people spoke of them and it wasn't always nice.

Before the war most people hated the humans, saying they were arrogant and obnoxious thinking the galaxy owed them when they had not deserved anything. During the war, they led the charge, they brought the Galaxy together to face the Reaper and united they won. After the war things returned to normal, although there was a little bit more respect for the humans but a lot of races still did not like them.

Elysia had read most of the stories of Captain Shepard, the first Human Spectre, saviour of the Citadel and the Council, the destroyer of the Collectors and then Saviour of everyone. From what she had heard Captain Shepard was different from most humans. She did not see in color or race. She did not believe one society was better than any other. To her they were all as one and as one she led them to victory. Just recently she married an Asari. But through all that she had heard that Shepard was not the norm for Human behaviour, she was just the best of them.

Not that any race was free from fanatics, even the Asari had a secret branch of the government that was tasked with protecting the Asari culture, hiding secrets and playing back room politics. The Turian also had their version of Cerberus. The only reason Cerberus was well known was because of their exposure and then the siding with the Reapers. The other groups were able to camouflage much better, they had been doing it longer.

"Why did they pick you?" Elysia asked finally.

Varra looked to the floor, "I have no family, I am Ha'drol."

The translator failed on that last word. "Ha'drol?"

"A burden to my people, one who leaches off others, I have no parents so other have had to take on my burden. In return I do the things that no one else wants to. I am what they make me."

"What happened to your parents?"

"I do not know, I was very young when they disappeared. My people usually left me alone while I was growing up. I stayed outside of them, except when they needed me to do things they did not want to do."

"Like?"

"Sometimes I was used to bring creatures to a trap."

"They used you as bait?" Elysia was beside herself.

"No, it's ok, I always got the first meal though, and I am fast and a great hunter, better than they know," the green woman whispered and looked around as if her people could hear, "Females are not supposed to hunt but I taught myself."

The Asari took a deep breath and had to remind herself that this was a different culture and did things differently. She was not a history major and she knew her people's past was not perfect, but now they had evolved and this behaviour was, to her, horrifying. She could not imagine living in a society that didn't take care of their own. That used those that needed the most help as bait and slaves.

Elysia studied the girls face, her light blue eyes, bluish lips. She was very pretty, even though her nose was flatter and wider than most, she wasn't even sure there was a lot of cartilage in it. It almost looked like a flap with two slits under in but the flap did not move. The markings on her body were mostly in light blue and in certain light would never be noticeable. Wearing so little clothes Elysia could see that they started at her feet and went all the way to her forehead.

"Well, you're with us now and we will not use you a bait," she said finally. Varra smiled to her and Elysia could not help but smile back.

"What do these mean?" She said asking about the markings, her curiosity got the better of her.

Varra smiled and looked down to her legs. "It is my history," she said and pointed to a spot on the top of each of her feet. She lifted her left foot. "This is my mother and her history," she indicated her foot and leg up to her knee. She patted her right foot, "This is my father and his history. It ends when I was four and they disappeared."

"I'm sorry," Elysia said. "I never knew my father." She said, which was funny in the fact that her father was human and she had never talked to one before. "But my mother and I were close."

Elysia pointed to a marking on her side that looked like a tree, "and that?"

"That is my clan," she pointed to a much darker marking, one that almost stood out amongst the rest. "Ha'dral,"

"I'm sorry," Elysia said.

"It is, what it is," the native said back.

"But you didn't want to come to us?"

"I only saw the big creature, he was frightening."

Elysia smiled, "That is Tanith, he is called Krogan, they are a strong and powerful race, but he will not harm you. I promise," Elysia placed a hand on Varra's cheek, "No one will hurt you."

"Thank you Elysia," Varra said with a smile.

"Well, you're all fixed now; we should go out before the others start to make up stories."

Elysia stood first and moved out into the sunlight.

"Well, not quite as good a new, but we fixed up all of her cuts," Elysia said.

The others simply looked at her for a few minutes, "So why is she here?" Tanith finally asked.

"As a tribute, probably more for you Tanith cause you frighten them," Elysia smiled but Varra nodded in agreement. "They chose her because she has no family, they seem to be," she paused and looked to Keith as if it was his fault, "a male dominated society."

Keith raised a brow, "And this is my fault?" he asked taking in her glare.

"Do we take her home?" Tanith asked. Elysia looked to Varra. Varra shook her head slightly.

"I don't know, she is not treated well there."

"Jesus, she is not a pet, we can't keep her," Keith said. "We barely even know how we are going to take care of the Turian family we have, we don't need another concern."

"You don't even care anyway," Elysia shot back, "Besides this is her planet, she knows the lay of the land, and she could be invaluable to us. She knows where and what to hunt, what dangers there are to avoid. She can be a liaison to her people."

"Well, points to the kid," Laius conceded, "her information can be invaluable."

"Yeah and she can be playing possum and lead her people right to our supplies or she can cut our throats open while we are sleeping. We do not know these people, what we are listening to "tribute" and a little girl that wants a pet. Well what if the pet bites back. We know nothing about her except what she wants to tell us," Keith countered. "On Earth there was this myth that sailors used to believe in. There was this area of ocean that was infested with what they called Sirens, they were beautiful and they sang to the sailor with seductive voices and when the sailors went to them they killed them, took their boots and their treasures."

"He's got a point," Remes said and Elysia glared at him. She thought he would back her up of all people. "No really, what if she is just playing you, saying what you want to hear. I mean, and no offence, but you are the most impulsive of all of us. She targeted you; she could just see you as an opening to get to us."

"What is that supposed to mean, are you calling me incompetent?"

"No, I just mean that,"

"I'm the weakest link," she filled in the blank for herself.

"Yes," Keith answered, "You jumped into that lake yesterday without a second thought, you cut her off the tree without even considering that she could possibly harm us. She could have some sort of whammy on you right now."

"I don't think she means us harm," Dharti spoke up, "I consider myself a great judge of character she was terrified when we found her."

"Oh and that makes me feel that much better," Keith said. "Two Asari siding with a green hairless native."

"What does that have to do with anything?" Dharti said turning to the human.

"Was that racist?" Elysia added.

"Well I don't know but you seem to share the half-dressed culture with them."

"ENOUGH!" Tanith shouted. "Now really I don't know anything about any of you. Who's to say one of you won't slit my throat while I am sleeping at night." The Krogan glared at the Human, "You concern me far more than Varra does any way but I'm not going to kick you out of the camp either. We will find out in time if she is going to harm us. Until then we have a guide, someone to help us on this planet so we will not be so blind. Now get over it all of you."

It was quiet for a long time. Keith simply turned and walked away, Dharti went in the opposite direction and Remes and his father went off on their own. Elysia looked to Tanith, "Thank you."

"Don't thank me, Keith is correct, you are impulsive and that is a dangerous trait," Tanith huffed, "But you are technically young and you will learn. In the mean time Varra is your responsibility, take her on your outing with Remes; maybe she can give you some insights on where to hunt."

Elysia nodded not sure if she should be happy or offended. Impulsive, it was not the first time she had heard that, but for some reason it still stung slightly. She turned to Varra, "Well you get to stay," she said with a slight smile, hoping that this time her instincts were correct and they had nothing to fear from the green Native.


	7. Chapter 7

Laius had lived through two wars and liked neither of them. Like most of the soldiers he had been with over the years he had stepped down from the military after the Reaper war. He had really been too old to be in the Reaper war, but when facing annihilation it really did not matter what your age was. Not that the Reaper was a good thing, but it was a good war. It was something worth fighting for. Not like the "First Contact" war.

Laius had only been a pilot when they had discovered the Humans; he had only been 22, by Human standards then. He had been in the military for just over four years. The Turian had been young and impetuous as most, but even then, he had not agreed with how the Turians had fired upon the Human. There had been no warning; no attempts at talks, the humans did not even have a chance to explain themselves. This had never sat well with the Laius.

He had always believed it had been like a parent beating a child for playing with fire, when the child had no concept of the danger. The humans had no idea where relay 314 led to. They had never experiences the Rachni; they had not been around for the war that had seen millions killed.

He had not been privy to the decisions made, nor was he one to disobey orders. He knew deep down the Humans were simply being curious about what the Galaxy had to offer. Every race that had found the mass relays had been the same, including the Turians. He would never understand why those that held the power at the time chose to just open fire. They were really not an unreasonable people. He had always wondered how things would have went had they approached the Humans and explained to them the dangers of opening the Rachni relay.

He often blamed his own kind for the behaviours of the Humans since the war. He wondered if they would have been so arrogant and superior had there not been a war. He wondered if they would have been completely different had there contact with other races not started with hostilities.

He had often thought that each race had their roles in galactic society. Turians were the law enforcers, while Krogan seemed to be the soldiers, Asari were the counsellor, Salarians the scientist, Quarians the engineers. Even those that were not part of the council had their uses, the Volus were the business people and the Hanar the religious ones, he had still not figured out where he would put the Elcor or the Vorcha, but he was sure they had uses as well.

Humans seemed to have the traits of all the others combined, as if they were the glue. Given what happened in the Reaper war, Laius had realized what their role was; they were the heart. They were the glue that held everyone else together. That was largely in part because of their Captain Shepard, she had been the one to bring everyone together, and she had been the one that had made them strong.

Humans were far from perfect, they were still petulant and demanding and they still thought that the universe revolved around them, but Shepard had shown the rest of the Galaxy just what the Human could be, and probably one day, would be.

Laius was more than certain that the First Contact war was responsible for birthing Cerberus. He, like everyone else, hated that organization but he had never been able to not feel responsible for their existence. Had the Galactic community been more welcoming to the Humans perhaps they would not have thought they needed an organization such as that. Perhaps they already had one, but no one would ever know.

Laius looked down to the satellite that sat on the beach. He had decided to wander down and see what the commotion was about. Keith had hijacked the black box within and Dharti had told him about the markings. She had also told him of how Keith had pushed her away from it when they had found the markings as if they worried him.

Laius had no trust in Keith. This particular human thought of no one but himself and had secrets, deep secrets that worried the old Turian. Everything Keith had done since they crashed had been for himself. Although, the particular act of burying the Asari he had been sitting with was surprising. He wondered what had made her so special. It was obvious from the event of this particular day that the Human was deeply prejudice and had little regards for the Asari.

He looked back to the group. The Krogan and Dharti had gone out exploring leaving Elysia with Varra. The Native seemed to have clung on to the young Asari like a life raft and Elysia did not seem to mind, as a matter of fact it seemed to give her some sort of purpose. It might even keep her out of trouble.

Not that she was trouble; she was just young, for an Asari. He had to watch when he said that since she was older than he was, a hundred and four she said, which would make her a teenager by human standards and a young adult by Turian. Oh some Asari were mature at that age, but Elysia was certainly not one of them. He liked her though, she had a spark about her and one day he could see, she would be a fine warrior.

He was slightly concerned about Varra as well. She could be exactly what she made out to be, but Keith was right, she could also be a trap. They did not know her people or what they were capable of. She seemed sincere, but if he was in her place he would have been trying anything to get back to his people. He wondered though, with the bruises, that maybe she just did not want to return, maybe her people were abusive towards her because she was alone, and maybe she did fight when they chose her. It could be that she simply never got attention like the attention Elysia was giving her. He would keep an eye on her.

He reached the satellite and immediately knew what the problem was. He had seen that symbol before, he was not sure where but he had seen it. It was not simply a left over artifact like the pilots had originally believed; it was something from the Milky Way. That would be a reason for its explosion, whomever it belonged to, did not want it found, which also meant they needed to move. They were too close to the satellite and if someone came looking for it they would find them and Laius did not figure they would be too friendly; the council had set out very strict laws about the new galaxies.

He ran his claws over the symbol and then tapped the metal as he looked out into the large body of water they had named an ocean. They would have to find a fertile place where he could plant some of the seeds he brought. He had been planning on starting a farm on Earth. His parent had both been farmers; well mostly his mother, he and his sister had helped her until he was old enough to join the military. He knew what he was doing; he just needed the proper land.

The fruits he would grow would help supplement the protein bars and hopefully give him and his son another year. Hopefully in that year he could get the figtine and whev to grow so he could make his own paste for them to survive on. The only problem was it usually took two or three years for them to catch on and grow to their potential. He knew they didn't have that time. He could only hope that the heavier humidity would help promote production. He would save some seeds as he went but because of the situation they were now facing he would use the crop cutting method of cultivation over the seed. It was much faster. He just needed to get things started and the sooner the better.

"Do you know who they are?" this was from Keith, Laius turned to him, he had not even heard the human come down.

"I've seen the markings before, I'm not sure where, but it means we are not safe here. We are going to have to move on before the owner of this satellite comes looking for it," the Turian replied. "What about you? Have you ever seen it?"

"No," Keith lied, "I mean I thought it looked familiar as well but I can't place it but with so many different industries out there all fighting to establish something in this galaxy who knows. Either way I don't think any of them would chance civilian knowing about their operations."

"Well, I agree with you there," Laius said stroking his mandibles slightly. "I just wish I knew how much time we have."

"I would say the sooner the better, it's the safest. That area the kids found sounds nice but does not afford much flat land for this farm you keep talking about."

"Not to mention giant Asari eating creatures," Laius laughed. Keith smiled.

"Yeah, that could be a problem."

"Oh, I would say there are a few problems," Laius looked at him for a long moment. "So you just hate the Asari or does that spread out to all the other races?"

Keith seemed to weigh his answer before speaking "That, old man, spreads out to everyone, regardless the race, including Humans."

"So you hate everyone?"

"Well most of the time," Keith answered, "but what I feel is beside the point and I don't care to have this discussion with you. We should get the others together and plan on heading out."

"What about that black box you recovered?"

"Nothing so far, it's protected by code that I can't break and won't be able to break without a proper computer." He lied; he could open it if he wanted he just decided it was better if he did not. Not that he had any loyalty to Alpha Protocol, but it might be the one thing that would save his ass if they came looking for it. The less he knew the less likely there were to kill him. Hell he might even be able to make a deal to get himself off the planet. It was one of the reasons he had not spoken of the satellite he had hoped they would stay near it. Now that idea was all shot to hell.

Of all the people Keith worried about it was Laius. He was smart and he was a warrior and he had seen a little bit more than the others. According to Remes, Laius had been Commander before he retired and according to his youngest; Laius had also been in intelligence for a while. Obviously before Alpha Protocol aligned with Cerberus, or this conversation would have been taking a different route.

Laius looked at him for a long few moments. "Well you just keep working on it. We will need to start packing though. I think tomorrow morning would be a good time to start out."

"Or it could be too late."

Laius looked out over the water and slowly nodded. "You're right, as soon as Dharti and Tanith return we'll head out; maybe spend the night close to the river, not so close to that waterfall. Maybe Varra has an idea of where we could find a place."

"I'll talk to her," Keith said. Laius smiled.

"I'll talk to Elysia who can talk to her; I think it best of you steer clear of the women for a bit. I don't think either of them is too keen on you at the moment."

Keith simply laughed and turned and headed back up the hill towards the shuttle. Laius raised a brow and shook his head. Yes indeed, this human was going to be nothing but trouble.

With the red moon further away from the planet then the white moon a strange darkness settled over the planet at night, it was almost a purple hue and the usually white lights from the spotlight of the medium transport shuttle were turned red. The closer one got to the surface the more white the light became until it shone on the remainder of the doomed satellite.

Several armed men deployed from its body and moved around the fallen debris and faced out into the forested area. The natives usually just ran when they saw the shuttles, thinking they were some strange deadly bird, but occasionally curiosity got the better of them. The natives in this area might be small but they had strength in ways that humans simply could not compete with. It was part of the reason why Alpha Protocol was there now, studying them.

Bryson stepped out of the shuttle and stood beside his boss Carver Sysco. They were the two in charge of the program on Calinth. Bryson was the head of the military aspect of Alpha Protocol and Carver was the lead representative of the company. Technically he was Bryson's boss but the two of them had a healthy understanding of the other. Carver made all the decisions except those that that involved the security of the operation, Carver stayed out of his business.

Carver had been extremely upset when the idiot pilot of the cruise shuttle had decided to go after their satellite. Most of the shuttles that went out now came back with artifacts, it was pretty much a known fact, and they created a large amount of revenue these days. However, the shuttle routes had not been allowed this far as of yet.

That was a fact he would make sure Pitne For industries were made aware when he had a chance. He would make that Volus run organization pay him back for anything they had lost.

Carver moved over to the debris and began to search. Bryson stepped out towards the hill. The shuttle had crashed there and they had no idea if there were survivors. He sent a five man team up to check it out. He turned and watched Carver.

"Well?"

"It's gone," Carver said obviously upset and angry.

"Maybe it fell elsewhere?" Bryson moved over to him. He was a military man and really, knew nothing about satellites. It all looked like bent metal to him.

"No, it's gone, like it pried out of its housing gone," Carver said and looked to him.

"Hmm," was all the man said and raised a brow? He looked up the hill and began to make his way towards the shuttle. He was met half way there by one of his men.

"There were survivors," The young man reported. Bryson nodded and rubbed his chin. That would at least make things interesting for a while. The natives were not so fun to torment when he was bored. They were easy to hunt, but they were not used to being hunted. Hopefully whoever took the box would be more of a challenge.

"Do we know how many or who, or anything?"

"We found the shuttles black box, it should tell us who was aboard, but we did find one lone grave and a mass grave, we have no idea of how many are buried, looks like they burned them first."

"What about the buried one?"

"Scans indicate that it was Asari."

Bryson scowled, he hated the Asari more so than any other race they had come across in the last 40 years. "Get the information and then scan the mass grave, find out who we have left." If he was lucky perhaps one of the survivors was Asari. Then he could get rid of some of the built up frustrations her felt at being stuck on this backwards planet. "Then let's find out where they went."


	8. Chapter 8

For most of her life Tachanka was nothing but a waste land. Her people had destroyed with nuclear war and years of neglect. It was one giant piece of rock. She had hated it, it was bleak and desolate and a grim reminder of how destructive her people could be. Most Krogan liked to blame the Salarians and Turians for everything bad that happened to them but the bitter truth was the Krogan had destroyed their own planet. They had been the ones that had nuked the only fertile land that was on the planet and then it was the Krogan that went crashing through the rest of the galaxy trying to force them somewhere new to live. Tanith did not agree with the Genophage but she certainly understood why the others had thought it necessary.

Now with everything cured and the Krogan wanting to replenish the ranks the woman of her species had become nothing better than tools for producing offspring. They were forced into becoming pregnant and when they had their child they were given to the next male Krogan. It was a harsh life, and one Tanith refused to become a part of. The Krogan had changed through the genophage as well and were no longer having litters but most had only one child at a time, the rare occasion produced two. This forced the issue and most women were akin to machines. She had begun to hate her own people, hence the reason for leaving.

Since she left she had spent most of her time on ships and stations, most thought she was a male Krogan so she had been able to get all sorts of jobs to help her get by. This was the first time she had seen plant life such as this. She had never really seen a large pool let alone a lake or an ocean. The air was different, clean or fresh or not the stale air of the station or the slightly acrid air of Tuchanka. She decided she could get used to this. Maybe not this planet, because it was very hot, but maybe Earth, or Thessia.

They had continued walking through the night, any plans of stopping had been quelled when Laius had caught up to them and informed them that the shuttle had been found, by armed men. He had decided not to stay and find out if they were friendly. Tanith just happened to agree with Keith and Laius on this. Whoever was illegally on this planet would not just let them walk away.

They had needed to trust Varra to guide them; they had asked her to help find a place that would have shelter but access to water. Varra had mentioned taking them to her home but that idea was quickly put aside. No one really trusted her people any more than they did the people that owned the satellite. So they headed out just before it got dark, after spending most of the day organizing and packing.

It seemed as though they had been walking for days when only a few hours had passed. Tanith was not much for long hikes in the heat. She weighed pretty much the same as everyone else combined give or take a few pounds.

"So," this was Elysia, yet again. She was destined to be a pain in Tanith's side, "if they keep following us we won't be able to have a permanent place to stay."

"You are very good at stating the obvious," Tanith replied.

"I'm just going over things in my head. Cause if we can't take root and Laius can't do that farming thing he wanted to do and we might lose the two of them."

"You're an optimistic one aren't you?" Tanith said.

"More of a realist, I am sure those that are following us are trained to do so and they have more people than we do. I just became a Commando and I have no field experience. Remes, Laius are warriors and Dharti is a teacher and I don't trust Keith. We cannot take on an army, so we are on the run."

"Sounds about right, unless we can find something defensible," Tanith said.

"Or, we make allies, we have Varra, she can help."

"We don't know Varra well enough yet," the Krogan explained, "she seems harmless but we really don't know, maybe in time it might be a good idea, but for now we need to just let the trust build."

Elysia laughed, "We don't even know each other enough to really say we trust each other."

Tanith smiled, "Well, you got a point there; we are really just strangers aren't we." Elysia nodded her agreement.

Tanith leaned closer, "I haven't trusted any of you since we landed, I just trust certain people less than others."

"Here," Varra said from the front of the group. It was pretty dark and they only allowed for the one light. Tanith narrowed her eyes and finally noticed the outline of some sort of tunnel. "This is our old home, no one comes here anymore."

"They burrow," Dharti said looking back to them. Tanith moved closer and eyes the opening.

"Are you kidding me?" She said and looked to them. She was going to have to crawl. The tunnels were only five and half feet tall.

"There is a meeting room in the middle of the tunnels, very big." Varra promised.

"It better be," Keith piped up, "Cause I really don't like you all that much to be cuddling, unless of course it's between the blue wave."

"Why do you always have to say things to make us angry?" Elysia said falling for his goading.

"Because you always fall for it kid," Keith said, Elysia snarled.

"I am older than you," she countered, Keith laughed.

"Could have fooled me," he retorted, egging her on. She looked away but slight light blue wisps formed around her hand. Dharti placed her own hand on the younger Asari's shoulder.

"Don't let him get to you, he's doing it on purpose," the teacher said softly. Elysia could not help it. She was not as calm and forgiving as the older Asari and his words from earlier in the day were still fresh in her head. "You're better than he."

"If she decides to kill you human I'm not stopping her," Tanith said, she liked the Asari much better than the Human.

"This is really not the time," Laius stepped between them, "We have some unknown soldiers looking for us and we have been on the move most of the day and night. I am tired and would like to crawl into those tunnels and try to get some sleep."

Elysia looked to the Turian for a long moment then turned away, breathing hard to control her anger.

"Good, Elysia you can take the first watch, Remes you the second. In the morning we will scout out and try and figure out what it going on."

"Yeah, good girl," Keith smiled to her as he crawled into the hole; Dharti caught the Asari before she could go after him.

"He's not worth it, Elysia; he's an ignorant bastard, karma will catch up to him. Be better than him, we all know you are." She looked back as the other followed Keith.

"None of you know anything about me," Elysia said to her. "We don't know anything about each other."

"Well that's not true," Dharti smiled, "We know you're a Commando and that you're a very caring person, Remes is a soldier, his father wants to be a farmer, Tanith might be a bit gruff but he's got a good heart deep down and Keith, well, he's not quite as nice. We might not know everything about each other but I think we have a pretty good start."

Elysia rubbed her forehead and looked to the other woman a smile making its way to her lips, "You taught primary didn't you. You're far too nice and positive to be anything but."

Dharti laughed, "Well, yes, primary, but I was a music teacher as well. I loved teaching music and I love children so it was a dream job."

"Did you leave Thessia, when they…"

"Yes, I was in charge of making sure my students got away, I don't have the biotic abilities you have and I am not much of a fighter," Dharti laughed softly and looked up to the sky, "Which is odd considering my father was a Turian."

Elysia smiled and sat down on the ground, Dharti joined her, "Yes I can see where that would be odd, what about your mother?"

"She was a teacher as well, but she also loved to travel. She met my father on the Illium; she said he rescued her from a mugging. I don't have a lot of memory of him but she said that he was very charming and that for a week after the rescue he would come to her hotel just to make sure she was ok."

Elysia chuckled, "My father was Salarian but died long before I could remember, my mother never talked about him. I know she loved him though, she was a very focused individual and she would never have had a child on a whim. She was a Commando and I wanted to be just like her. From the moment I could walk I pretended to be a Commando and made up wars in my heads that I would have to go off and fight," She smiled sadly. "My mother really did not want me to follow in her footsteps, but I was gifted and sent to Doctrina when I was twenty seven."

"That's really young, almost too young," Dharti said. "It must have been hard, all the other trainees would have been almost twice your age"

"My mom was not happy but she didn't argue, she knew that even though she didn't want it for me, that I wanted it. They kept throwing out words like talented and powerful and I bought into it. And I did enjoy it even though I really didn't have any friends."

Dharti smiled and patted Elysia leg. "I think you mom just wanted you to have a childhood. There were a lot of very important stages you missed that your fellow student would have already gone through."

"I guess but I never thought of that," She looked to Dharti, "I was good and they kept telling me that and at the time, that was all that mattered."

It was silent for a bit and Elysia rubbed some dirt off her thigh, "I wish I could back and have those years with my mom though. I thought that I would have time after, but then the war,"

"Yeah, I know that. My wife had wanted to have children but I didn't think I was ready. I kept telling after this or after that." Dharti paused and played with the ring on her finger. Elysia knew it was a wedding band, not that Asari required such trinkets, but they seemed important to humans. "When the war started we promised, as soon as it was over we would have children but then," Dharti felt her bottom lip tremble as it always did when she thought of her lover's death, Elysia, bless her, wrapped an arm around her shoulders. "I remember we were in different shuttles and looking out as hers lifted from the landing zone. The beam from a descending Reaper caught her shuttle and, it exploded, Kim and her class gone in the span of seconds."

"I'm sorry," Elysia said as they huddled together under the unfamiliar sky. "She must have been a very special person to have a wife like you."

Dharti smiled, "She certainly was."

It was quiet for a long moment as they sat together looking up at the star and the two moons. Elysia looked back to Dharti, "You should go in, they'll be planning things and we should have at least one Asari representative there to keep Keith in line."

"You'll be ok?"

"Yes, I have calmed down now," Elysia stood and held a hand down for the teacher, "Thank you."

Dharti took the hand and let the Commando help her up, "Good, we'll be alright, I think we're all good people in our own ways, even Keith, we just might have to search for it his goodness and little harder."

"Maybe with a shovel," Elysia joked.

"Well, we do have one of those if it's needed. I'll bring you water later," Dharti promised and disappeared into the tunnel. Elysia looked to the hole in the ground for a long moment before moving over to a tree. She would be harder to spot as part of the tree as she would sitting in the middle of an opening. She withdrew her pistol and made sure that it was ready just in case.

* * *

Part of her training as an Asari Commando was working under sleep deprivation conditions as well as boredom. They would often had "games" where one would have to stand guard for three days, no one ever knew if there would be a surprise attack or not but one always had to be ready for it.

The first time Elysia had to complete the task she fell the first night when her eyes closed all on their own. The second time she had lasted until the third day, that time she had been the only one that failed and most did not let her live it down. She had been angry at herself at the time, as well as the other students for constantly making fun of her, but the by the third time they had test she had was able to endure.

One of the Commandos had taken her aside and taught her a light meditation technique that actually helped her concentrate on the area she was defending. She used that now as she leaned against the tree, her hand resting on the grip. There were a lot of noises the area made that were natural, some louder than other. On Thessia there had been this lizard like creature, the trilliacera, it was nocturnal. She used to love to hear them sing at night, it was a wonder alto sounding chirp. When there was a chorus of them it was like listening to music.

The creatures on this planet at night were like that. There were several different creatures all singing their own song, but they all blended together so nicely. She could not help but wonder what they looked like. The trilliacera was not the most beautiful creature on Thessia.

She smiled to herself as she remembered a prank she had played on one of the older students in the school, but the smile did not last long as her ears picked up something else. First the singing behind her had stopped and the silence from there was almost deafening. She strained to hear what had caused the sudden silence. She moved a bit away from the tree and spotted something in the corner of her eye. She spun quickly but was bowled over anyway by something large and furry, with sharp claws she noted as they dug into her shoulder. She flew through the air.

She brought her pistol out quickly curing the fact that her bad shoulder had been furthered injured and it hurt like hell. She wanted to open fire on the large dark shadow before her, her finger jerked slightly on the trigger before she realized that would only bring attention to the area they were in.

Her hand flashed blue and she prayed that the creature was not too big and heavy for a singularity. She had never really used it on anything so big before, she shot her hand out once and the creature seemed to lose its footing and start to topple sideways before being lifted into the air she followed it up and threw her hand to the left, away from the tunnels, the creature flew out of sight. A few seconds later she heard shouting and then gunfire.

"Goddess," she whispered, the soldiers must have been close by, she was glad she had decided against shooting, although throwing a large furry creature in the middle of them would not be overlooked either, but it would buy them time.

She stumbled slightly as she ran for the tunnel entrance and ran into Keith as he was the first one out.

"Gunfire?" he asked.

"It wasn't me, I was attacked by something and gave it a throw and I guess I threw it into the soldiers," she explained. Keith looked out spotting the muzzle flashes and then smiled.

"Well, bet they didn't expect that," He said and patted her on the good shoulder, "Good thinking,"

She smiled slightly not expecting that.

"We have to move," Keith shouted as he ran down the tunnel. Elysia followed. Everyone was already packing quickly.

"Is there another way out of the tunnel?" Tanith asked Varra.

"Lots," Varra said simply.

"You are wounded," Dharti floated over to the younger Asari.

"It was big and came from nowhere." Elysia said.

"The soldiers?" Dharti fished through her pack for a med gel pack.

"No it was a creature, it attacked me and I threw it, I just happened to throw it in the direction the soldier were coming from. I didn't even know they were there," the Commando explained. "I don't think it was happy."

"Well, if we are lucky it will kill them all," Keith said, "Dharti we don't have time now. Move first heal later."

"It's ok, it was injured already anyway," Elysia added. She grabbed her own pack that had been rested against a wall. She hung it over her good arm.

"Well so much for some rest," Tanith said and moved to her knees, she was not able to stand in these tunnels. Elysia felt bad for her, the Asari moved to Varra.

"Ok let's get out of here, go," She said and waited until the others had passed. As a second thought she turned back to the room they taken over and hit it with a singularity causing dust and rocks to curl up and blow all over the place. Remes stood behind to wait for her.

"That way they won't know we were here, or what tunnel we went down, at least for a bit," she explained. Remes nodded and the two of them moved to join the others.


	9. Chapter 9

**OOC: This is for those of you who asked. I wasn't going to bother but apparently everyone wanted to see this**

* * *

There were two types of soldiers in Alpha Protocol, just as there were two types of soldiers in every armed force. You had those that wanted to be there because they truly believed in the cause and would lay down their lives for it, and then you had those that joined because they needed a pay check. Occasionally you found a third type, that crazy guy that just liked to kill things but mostly you just found the first two.

Bryson was the first; he had been a part of Alpha Protocol for as long as he could remember. They had gone through several names through the years and even once had been mistaken for Cerberus. He had even worked with Cerberus on several occasions. They certainly shared a lot of the same beliefs and they had worked together several times. Alpha Protocol had only one goal and that was research in the name of humanity. For the longest time Cerberus funded most of their research but since the war Alpha Protocol was slowly pulling ahead of them. When Cerberus lost the Omega 4 relay members of AP quickly made sure they had the majority of hands in the development of travel through the relay.

They had agents everywhere, some in some very high places, and some in places that Bryson didn't even know and it was better that way. He was a weapon, they pointed him in the direction they wanted him to go and he did his job and he was good at it.

He hated aliens, with a passion. They had been nothing but condescending egotistical bastards who had no trouble telling humans just how unimportant they were and then getting mad when humans did things to make things better. Human were not the only race that had secret organizations with the sole purpose of protecting their race. He knew there was a branch of Asari Commandos dedicated to do so for the Asari, the Curiosi was a branch of the Turian Forces dedicated to such as well, the Salarians had the STG.

He often curse Captain Shepard for coddling the other races, she had this annoying knack for treating everyone equal when they most certainly were not. Hell, the soldier had even married an Asari whore. As far as he was concerned she was a traitor to the Human race.

Now according to the records his people had gone through, he was hunting two Asari as well as two Turian and a human. He knew nothing about the human or the two Asari but he did know that the Turians were father and son and had fought in the war on Earth. That lent the two a little more credibility then the others. At this point he had decided they would get a quick death, a bullet in the head.

There were two things he hated and Calinth and it was the blasted heat, at least in this area, and the bugs. There were not many but they bit hard. He had traveled through several forest and been bitten by many things but the Arshwa fly bit hard and infected the bite with a toxin that made it feel as though the skin was falling off around it, it burn so sharply.

"I'm telling you Commander, that's twice now I have come across indications that they may have a Krogan with them"

His young tracker Private Jenssen was perhaps one of the best he had ever worked with and he had worked with quite a few. The young man had grown up on the Bayous of Louisiana hunting with his "pappy and grand pappy". He had that typical accent that was a cross between Indian and French but he had worked hard to master English to be understandable, he had done well.

Unfortunately the young man was joined for the pay check, however in saying that he was one of the few that was loyal to the unit, and a damn good tracker.

"There was no record of a Krogan on the list, you sure it's not just something native?"

"It could be, but it is big and heavy,"

"Could be a Ronian?" Bryson asked. One of the others answered a female. Bryson looked to her. She was a pretty girl for the whole tom boy look. He was not one of those people that found women in armour attractive. She had cut her red hair short and had it combed back and had freckles along the bridge of her nose, which was probably why the rest of the unit called her Freckles, soldiers were simple minded like that. She was also a gun for hire.

"No, there are no Ronians in this area, Commander, not for miles, this is Karthin territory," Freckles continued, "Although, it could be one of several of the large creatures in this area. Bipedal, three toes, could be the wedgit."

"Could it be following them?" Jenssen asked.

"If it was it would have caught them by now, it's not one for stalking and waiting. It smells prey, it usually just attacks," Bryson said.

"Could be it caught their scent long after they past, it is said to be a great tracker. Or they could have lost it somehow" Freckles speculated.

"We won't know until we find them," the Commander said, indicating it was time to move on. They continued to follow the lead that Jenssen made for them. He could hear the young man commenting.

"I still say it's Krogan." He mumbled to Freckles as they moved ahead. For a split second Bryson thought of just knocking the kid into tomorrow. Instead he gripped his assault rifle tighter and continued on.

They were just coming close to a clearing, with the thinning of trees. He looked back to the other eight men behind him keeping up. He was never one to underestimate an enemy and Turian were formidable foes all on their own add in the two Asari and the unknown human and anything could happen. He had brought his ten best men, and women.

"I think I hear something," Jenssen said ducking down lowly and bringing his rifle up. The others followed suit. Bryson strained his ears but heard nothing.

"What did it sound like?" He whispered.

"Some sort of,"

Then he heard the feminine grunt and the sounds of a struggle up ahead. He smiled slightly, it had been a wedgit. He was about to signal to his men to move out quickly when he heard a bit of a squeal.

"What the hell is that?" He asked.

"That didn't sound right." Jenssen said as he looked up at the last minute only to get crushed by something large and furry.

"Holy fuck," Bryson shouted but before he could do anything the creature's massive paw racked a path through his face, leaving three long read trails. The creature didn't stop there grabbing another soldier and almost ripping him in two.

"What the fuck," Freckles said at the same time and opened fire, she had been the expert in the creatures from this area and she was more than certain that wedgit did not fly. The problem was that they were extremely strong, stronger then the bears from earth and twice the size and had the added bonus of opposable thumbs so they could grab people, sort of what this one was doing now as their bullets just seemed to piss it off.

The Commander remained on his feet despite the fact that his face was a mess and he was bleeding all over the place. The remaining soldiers split up and worked to surround the beast.

"Don't let it escape," Bryson shouted, this fucking beast had made it personal and it was going down or they would die trying. Not only that but when he found out which one of those fucking survivors had biotics he would make them pay for days and days.

Freckles dropped her useless assault rifle to the ground and brought out Felix, her shot gun. It had been her fathers before her and she used slugs for occasions such as this, or for the occasional Krogan. It always came in handy. While the wedgit tore apart another soldier she stood over Janssen's unconscious form and fired twice, hitting it in the head and shoulder, then quickly brought the gun down for the reload.

The beast staggered and made a deep whiney noise as it tried now to get away. It stumbled back into the forest.

"Oh no you don't," Bryson shouted following and pulling out his knife and using it to cut the back of the knee out from under the giant. It fell to all fours trying to crawl away. Bryson climbed to its back and plunged the knife deep into the creature's neck, holding on for dear life as it tried to shake him by slamming into trees. Freckles followed as she finished reloading and fired twice more. The creature crashed completely and slid another foot or two.

It was quiet for a few moments as everyone came to grips with what just happened. "Commander?" she asked and approached the beast.

"What the fuck, Freckles?" He asked raising his hand to his face.

"Medic," she shouted and looked around hoping Thompson had not been ripped apart.

"Jenssen?" Bryson asked.

"Alive but unconscious that thing landed on him so I would be surprised if there was no internal damage." Freckles said as an older bald man ran up and looked to the Commander.

"Well shit," He said and kneeled down to reach into his pack; he ripped open some medigel and slapped it on the Commanders injuries, "Well this is going to make you prettier," he said with a smile. They both knew if anyone else had made the comment they would have been dead, but Thompson and Bryson had been together for a long while. Thompson was also one of the ones that was here because he believed.

Bryson simply grunted as the man wrapped his head and left eye in a bandage. "That's going to take a bit to heal."

"We don't have a bit," Bryson said angry. "Wake the kid up, we'll come back for the rest later," He said waving at the three dead soldiers. They were far too close to the survivors to turn back now, that and he wanted revenge so bad he could taste it.

He bent down beside Thompson and Freckles as they revived the tracker. The young man woke up screaming.

"Calm down, it's gone." Bryson said.

"Where the hell, what?" Jenssen said looking around.

"One of those survivors threw that thing at us, that means they are close, can you move?"

Jenssen winced as the Thompson moved his omni tool over the kid. He stood though with help from Freckles.

"He has internal bleeding and three broken ribs Commander, we need to get him back to base ASAP."

"I can do it Commander," Jenssen said as the medic and the man exchanged looks. It was obvious he could not stand on his own.

"Fuck," Bryson said. "Stay with him, the rest with me." He said, he turned to Freckles, "Good thing you had that shot gun, and that you were a good shot, you can track?"

"Not anywhere as good as Jenssen but,"

"But good enough, let's go," he said not letting her finish.

* * *

"FUCK!" Bryson screamed and threw his gun to the ground. "Fucking alien pieces of fucking shit," to say he was angry was an understatement. He had wanted to kill tonight. After having a large creature launched at him and losing a part of his face he wanted revenge, to crush a throat with his hands. To come all this way to find that they lost the trail completely angered him beyond rationale. For a few seconds he even considered killing a couple of his own men just to relive the pressure the anger was causing.

The soldiers seemed to sense that as well as they all backed away, giving him room. Freckles motioned the others to leave. The trail coming into the tunnels had been crystal clear, even a moron could have followed them. They lead them down to this large room and then completely disappeared with five tunnels they could have gone down and no way of knowing if there was another way out. Had the unit not been wiped in half they could have sent a group of two down each path but it was too risky to send one. Even through his complete anger the Commander knew that.

This was not Freckles first tour or second or third, with the Commander. She had worked with him several times. She had seen him this angry twice before. Once when he had lost a good friend and the other time when found out his only son had been killed.

He was probably the most demanding man she had ever had to work with but it simply made her work harder. The fact that she had a crush on him helped as well.

Up until forty five minutes ago he had been an extremely handsome man. One of those unshaven string jawed type with a head of thick black hair. She had seen him smile a few times and it always made him look like some sort of famous actor. They had even once sat at the same table for a jacket and tie affair and she had totally developed her crush then. Not that she ever really had a chance. He was ten years older than she was and only dedicated to the job. She stayed with Alpha Protocol not only for the money, but to be closer to him.

She was also pretty good at calming him down. She always figured it was because she reminded him of his son in some way. At least that is what he had told her once. That she reminded him of his son with the short hair and trying to look like a boy. She took it in stride.

"Commander we have wounded we need to get back to base, including you." She reminded him. He snarled at her. "Jenssen, Thompson, they are waiting. We can go back and get more people and come back and search the tunnels properly, they might have gotten away for now but you'll get them. You always do." She said calmly even though he had moved to within inches of her.

"So you are saying we should quit?" He snarled.

She didn't flinch, not at this time, which would have just brought down his wrath. "I'm saying we go and get more people a fresh scout and find these ass holes properly, we are divided enough and it is night. We come back first thing in the morning with more."

He grabbed her by the collar and looked into her eyes. "We will find them," He said, "And I will make sure they pay for what they have done to me." He said slowly.

"Yes sir, they will, but they have a biotic and a head start, we have Jenssen and daylight, they will pay sir. I promise."


	10. Chapter 10

Varra had never known her parents, she was so young when they died she did not even have a vague recollection. People would tell her how great they were and how the world revolved around them but she always had the feeling that they were nobody, just simple warriors that happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. She was never given the details, just that they had been killed during a hunt.

She never stayed in one place for long and was bounced from family to family like a village dog. The tribe claimed responsibility for her but no one wanted to take the time to care for her. Because of this she grew up alone and only a step above being an outcast. Oh the tribe fed her and gave her clothing. The Chief had labeled her a hunter and she had been taught to hunt but no one ever took the time to get to know her or truly make her family.

It was part of the reason she had been the one chosen to be the sacrifice for the Ronians. She had heard about them and stories were often told of the evil things the Ronian would do but no one had really ever seen them. It was simply stories passed between tribes that were then made to fit the particular tribe that was telling the story. No one in her tribe had ever seen a Ronian until now.

She wasn't quite sure if the large creature she traveled with now was Ronian, she was more on the doubting side, mostly because she had never heard or seen the others before and they were all too small for the rumours. That and from the stories she heard she should have been eaten by now. Instead this little group had taken her in and fed her and the small pretty blue had actually befriended her. She had not even thought twice about rescuing her from the tree and that meant a lot to Varra.

She would not even pretend to understand some of the things she had experienced since joining with these people, like that gel stuff that fixed her up, or the orange glowing things that sometimes appeared around their arms. Not only that but they had learned to speak her language really fast. She could not help but think they were all some sort of Gods, Gods that were treating her nice.

The only problem with that line of thinking was that they were running away from something. Varra had still not been able to get a look at what they were running from, but if it had Gods scared it must be something beyond her comprehension and she found herself terrified yet again. Then when she saw Elysia glow blue and destruction that spread from her hand to the room they had been in she was simply in awe.

Now she sat away from them as they spoke, she still had no understanding of what was happening some of the words they used were completely alien to her and at times they made absolutely no sense. They had run for the best part of the night and most of the day until she had brought them to Funders Twins, two mountains that separated her people territory from the Ergson Tribe. She knew there were several tunnels within either of the mountain and she picked the first one she could remember.

She pulled her legs up and wrapped her arms around them as she began to wonder how long her future was. What would happen when these people grew bored of her or she was no longer useful as a guide, would they just kill her?

She listened as they continued to argue now. Mostly the fuzzy pink one named Keith arguing with everyone else. He seemed to have done something that concerned the others.

"I say we leave it where they can find it, I am sure there is something pretty important on that recorder that they don't want us to have a potential to leak," The Ronian said.

"Are you kidding, this just might be the only thing that keeps us alive. To give it to them just makes us insignificant and dead."

"Maybe we can bargain with them?" Elysia said.

"We have nothing to bargain with," Keith argued, "We either give them the recorder and they kill us or we keep it until we can find a way to use it as leverage, but do not kid yourself they will try and kill us one way or another. We know they are here when they shouldn't be and I highly doubt they are here for sightseeing."

"He's right," the other Blue woman, Dharti said, "We know too much one way or another. Even if we didn't have the Satellites black box they would still come for us. They cannot chance us leaving this planet knowing that they are here."

"But we have no way to leave the planet, we pose no danger," Elysia pointed out.

"But we could and that will be a chance they will not take. Come morning they will come out in full force looking for us, especially now that they know we have the means to fight back," Keith said, he smiled to Elysia, "That was a stroke of genius, throwing that creature at them."

Elysia blushed, her blue friend was just lucky there was a wedgit nearby. She was very impressed that Elysia had survived contact with the creature, they were very strong, but then she did have that blue glowing stuff.

"Listen," Laius said, Elysia had called him Turian, "We need to keep it, Keith is right. We give it up to them and we are expendable. At least with it we have something they need."

"I pretty much think we are expendable either way," Laius said. "I say we keep it and move on. We have pretty much half a day on them but they also have shuttles."

"Why don't we try for a shuttle?" Remes asked.

"We could do it," Elysia added.

Keith laughed, "And what would we do with a shuttle, if there are shuttles here then I have no problems believing they have a ship out there that would just shoot us down as we left the planet."

"I can't see the Allied Forces allowing ships that don't belong to them through the Omega 4 relay. Don't all ships have to be authorized?" Dharti asked. Keith laughed again. Everyone looked to him.

"Oh come on now, really?" he said. Varra could tell that made everyone angry, she could sense it. They were all annoyed with the pink man. "Really?"

"If you know something spit it out," Tanith said angrily, Varra's eyes widened, of all the people in the group the Tanith scared her the most. He was so big, but then from what she heard most Ronians were.

"You don't think that the Allied forces are beyond reproach. You give anyone enough of an incentive they would do anything. Like turn a blind eye when one uses the relay, or botch up some logs so no one knows who went through. There are some very powerful companies out there, all of them probably wanting to discover strange new things in the new galaxies. There are probably all sorts of people out in the great beyond that no one knows about."

It was quiet for a long time. Varra wondered if that meant the conversation was over and now she could speak. She stood and smiled. "I know where we can get some food," She stated, they all looked to her and she suddenly felt nervous. "I'll just go and get it then,' she added when no one said anything.

"No," Remes said, she looked to him and off all the people in the room he and his father were the ones that reminded her most that they were different, aliens Elysia had called them. It was a strange word for her. "I'll go with," the Turian said. Varra smiled to him and they moved out of the cave together.

"What kind of food are we talking about?" Remes asked.

"I have no equipment to hunt to just fruits."

Remes nodded and looked away. Varra frown and then continued. "I heard them talk about you and your father, that you need special food."

"Yes our body is very different from your and the others, we can eat your food but there is a chance we will have an allergic reaction. We won't gain from it; it has no nutritional value to us."

Varra nodded, "A few years ago we had a drought and very little food to eat. The tora all left the area in search of food for themselves."

"Tora?"

"Large creatures that travel in herds, they are the main source of our food. We do fish as well but one tora is like three days of fishing."

"So tell me more about your people," the Turian asked.

"We are one of four in this area, our Tribe. These mountains are our border; beyond them are other tribes that we do not get along with. We have treaties and no one goes beyond, it would cause a war. We move with the tora, we camp where they rest during hunting season, but we always return to our main home."

"Just the hunters?"

"No everyone, we spend a long time there so everyone comes. My people believe strongly in family and like to keep them together."

"But you said you didn't have a family."

"No, I was taken care of but never really belonged. That was why I was the natural sacrifice."

Remes looked to her then ahead to where they were walking. "I'm sorry, if it means anything, I don't think any of us will sacrifice you."

Varra smiled, "So you are all from different lands, with different skies. Elysia said none of you knew each other before the crash. You all get along as if you did."

"Well, get along yes, I am not sure how much we trust each other yet. But we all, all of our peoples fought a huge war together. We all faced extinction and found that together we were strong enough to defeat our foe. I mean that doesn't mean we are all instantly friends, but it helped us respect each other a lot more, respect our differences."

"Who is it that chases you?"

"We don't know, there are people who like to exploit things and used them to suit their own purposes. They had an information gathering device out in the stars, our pilot messed with it. We don't know what it was gathering information on, if it was this planet or another but there are strict rules about interfering with other civilizations and they can be in a lot of trouble if anyone found out, so they want to make sure we can't tell anyone."

"So they want to kill you?"

"Apparently."

"Your people are violent," Varra said as she stopped and looked around She moved to a bush and began picking small green pod like items from the branches. "Poku, it's good cold or heated, you can just bite off the ends and suck the nectar out," she said then demonstrated, "very sweet."

"It looks good, "Remes said raising a brow. His stomach growled.

"Sorry."

Remes helped her collect more of the poku. She watched him out of the corner of her eye, thinking about what he had said, analysing it and trying to figure out what it all meant. She would like to say her own people did not exploit things but they did, just on a smaller scale. She was a living example of that. She was Ha'drol and as such used to do jobs that no one else wanted to do. No one said it was fair, it just was.

"What happens of you go beyond the mountains Varra?" Remes asked suddenly Varra looked from him to the mountain. She had never been beyond them but she had heard story about the tribes beyond. Her people told terrible stories about them, about how they fought each other and had no respect for each other. More often than not they were associated with evil. Her own Chief called them the tainted but Varra really did not know why. She just knew that if she crossed that border everything changed. Not that her people did not have issues either. They had not been kind when she refused to be a sacrifice. It had become a fight which she had lost. She had not wanted to be force to be with strangers, away from her tribe, her home, everything she knew.

These people though were not the monsters her people thought they would be. They had been kind to her and treated her almost like an equal. They listened to what she had to say and valued her opinion. Well most of them did. She was still scared by the big one and the pink fuzzy one, but the other four had been very nice to her and Elysia was the closest thing she had ever had to a friend. If they decided to go over the mountain though, she was not sure if she would go with them, if they gave her a choice.

"If I cross the border then I am no longer a part of my tribe," she answered finally. Here the tribe understand and respect each other's differences. I mean we are all basically the same but like you we have our differences. Over there, no differences you become them or they kill you."

Remes looked back up to the mountains then to her, "I'm sorry," He paused, "You know you are not out prisoner, you can go home anytime you like."

That was nice of him to say and she believed he meant it. She believed the whole group probably meant it; she just wasn't sure how her people would take her returning. They might see it as the Gods rejecting her and think she did something wrong and she would be punished for not appeasing them. She had a feeling that, even though her tribe did care about her, they felt as though two burdens were released with her sacrifice. The appeased the Gods and they got rid of a burden. She was almost certain there was no returning home.

"I don't think I have a home anymore," she admitted. She watched as the Turian twitched his mandibles, almost as if he was angry.

"Well then that's ok. I am sure Elysia will be ecstatic to have her new friend stay and really, you are invaluable to us with your knowledge. I think though we might have to go through the mountains to evade whoever is chasing us."

Varra leaned against a tree and looked into the mountains. Remes continue, "O'er the mountains the clouds go what they see nobody knows they travel so vast and leave so fast that no one takes time to understand what they bestow." It was a little song the Humans he fought with would sing, he didn't remember the rest of it. He actually didn't see the Humans need to put everything in song but they did.

Varra smiled, "I was born with nothing and I will die with nothing, the only thing that matters is what I do in-between, the friends I make, the deeds I do. Or as my Shaman said, life is not the destination but the journey. I had nothing back there; really, my own people sacrificed me because I really did not belong. Perhaps this is a journey I have to make; this is the in-between, the deeds, which will define me."

They were quiet for a long moment before Varra shook the bag she had brought with her. "I'm full." She said.

"Me too, we should get back to the others," he replied and looked down to his full bag wishing that he could eat it as well.

* * *

**I know it's not much but I just wanted to write as I think of how I want to do what comes next. **


	11. Chapter 11

Keith wanted to stop; his lungs were burning and his legs were barely getting one foot in front of the other. He had not realized just how out of shape he had gotten in the last few years, but then no exercise and constant alcoholic binges did that to a person. His left ankle was piercing tiny blades through his whole body every time the left foot hit the ground and he cursed the fact that he had sprained it.

He had actually considered stopping and letting Alpha Protocol just take him but Elysia would not let him. She ran behind him and every time he slowed down she pushed him, kept him going. In truth had it not been for the Asari Keith just might have been dead. He could not help but wondered why she had even bothered to help him after how rude he had been to her and what he did. He felt a pang of shame settle deep in his stomach, something he was not used to.

Suddenly the ground slopped at an almost impossible angle. He slid to a stop but not fast enough as he fell hitting the ground hard with his shoulder, his momentum propelling him down the steep hill. He swore to god he hit every large rock on the way down as well, curses erupting from his lips as he did. When he finally stopped he fully expected that Elysia would have run off and left him at the bottom of the hill. Instead he felt her hands on his arms trying to haul him to his feet.

"No, I'm done," He said through heaving breaths, "You go, save yourself."

"Don't be daft," She said to him pulling harder. He stumbled to his feet, if that was even possible. She continued to drag him until his feet worked again. He heard gun shots behind them. The soldiers were firing from the top of the hill.

"Shit," He cursed again.

"I got us," Elysia said erecting a barrier. "Just keep running, we're bound to lose them soon." She was practically carrying him now. "Goddess, man, run would you."

"I'm trying but my ankle is twisted," Keith growled.

"Stop whining I'm sure a sprained ankle is walk in the park to a bullet in the head," the Asari countered as they came across a river. She changed their direction and ran through the shallow water. They followed the water until it became too deep to continue. She hauled him out of it and into the steadily thickening forest, it mixed with the rock from the stream. They were already completely lost and Elysia could not help but wonder if they would ever find their way back to the others. As she ran she spotted the perfect hiding spot.

Without warning she whirled Keith around and shoved him into the rock face. He just barely fit and she squeezed in with him facing outwards. They continued to pant trying desperately to catch their breaths before the soldiers found them.

"Listen, I don't know why you're helping me after," Keith started.

"Shut up," Elysia snapped as she heard the running feet. They both struggled to control their breath. Keith closed his eyes to try and get control.

He really did have no idea why Elysia didn't leave him behind, he totally deserved it.

They had started out the morning hunting the wedgit that Keith had seen. Not that it had threatened anyone but having it so close to where they were hiding was dangerous. They had decided that it had to go, that and Varra promised she knew some great recipes for it and Remes had found a great new use for the incinerate program on his omni tool. They still did not want to chance any more fires.

Keith had challenge the young Commando when he had said being a soldier had nothing to do with hunting so they both headed out in search of this creature. Varra had made them a bow and had started to teach them how to use it, she also mentions other weapons her people used such as spears and a slings. They were all struggling with the bow and the balance of it the semantic were different from what any of them knew. They were all used to point and click and this bow had too many things to think about. How far do you pull the string, elbow placement, hand placement, aiming.

It had been two days and Tanith still manage to drop the arrows in front of himself, the rest were at least getting the arrow shot off but the aiming was coming slowly. Of all of them Dharti was actually doing the best. She at least hit the target area. Keith refused to try saying he preferred his gun. Elysia had decided that she was going to learn the bow one way or another but no matter how much she had practised in the last couple days she was not even close to Dharti and her arms were now permanently sore.

She could not help but admire how easily the bow came to Varra though, how the native made it look graceful and easy and she hit the target every time. Varra had wanted to come with her and Keith but he did not want her showing him up.

He and Elysia had gone out with their weapons, a rifle that they had taken from the storage of the shuttle and Laius sniper rifle. Just thinking of fresh meat made Keith more than hungry. The only thing missing was some beer. He wasn't sure if Elysia seemed to think the same as she and Dharti both seemed to really like the fish they had been catching. He himself preferred the red meat. It was hearty and delicious and he realised he was sounding like a commercial in his head.

They had traveled for most of the day without even a trace of the creature and they were both getting frustrated. Then they made the mistake of trying to talk to each other, or rather he had made the mistake of trying to talk to her.

"So like, what do Asari prefer, men or women?" He asked out of the blue. She looked at him as if he had two heads.

"It's not about man or woman," She said, "it's about sharing something special."

"Special, come one, your people sell sex all over the galaxy, there has to be a preference," He said with a slight smile.

"Some of my people sell sex, but we don't view sex the same way as you do, not like that anyway."

"Like what then?" Keith asked. Elysia narrowed her eyes. She did not really know how to answer, she was not a traveled individual to begin with, and this had actually been her first trip off Thessia.

"Well we don't get all flustered about our bodies, we don't dance for sex, we dance because it makes money and we are more comfortable with our bodies then most other races."

"Really, care to strip for me?"

"You're an ass," The Asari stated.

"Ok sorry, then what do you prefer, male or female, have you been with either?"

"None of your business," She snapped, Keith smiled.

"You haven't been with either, not even kissed and you're over a hundred years old,"

"Keith,"

"No really, that's amazing a hundred year old virgin. You are very sheltered for a Commando."

"Just because we are comfortable with our bodies does not mean we are going to run out and just give it to anyone. When I find that special person, it will be there's" She said, she knew Keith was trying to make fun of her but she saw nothing wrong with never being involved at her age. Most Asari do not get involved for a few more years yet. "And you don't know me so who are you to judge."

Keith smiled and without warning grabbed her around the waist and pulled her close kissing her. Elysia used to dream about her first kiss and it was always with someone she was in love with and it was gentle and firm and set of sparks. Keith's kiss was anything but, it was forceful and the little hairs on his face scratched her, to make natters even worse he stuck his tongue in her mouth.

"Stop!" She shouted her arm quickly glowing blue as smoky tendrils reached out for the human and flung him into a tree. "What the…?" She looked to him, trying to wipe the feel of his mouth from hers. Keith laughed as he slumped to the ground.

"Oh come on, don't be so uptight, I'm just playing with you."

"Playing with me," she shouted, she was covered in a blue wisps now, both arms glowing as her anger continued to grow, "Your nothing but an arrogant pig, you know that. That was wrong, what you did."

"Ok," he cooed, "ok that was wrong, I'm sorry I was just trying to get you going, I wasn't going to harm you." He said and touched her shoulder. Her hand came faster than he ever expected and slammed into the side of his face, he never expected her to be able to hit that hard either. His head snapped sideway and he actually spun slightly, his foot catching on a rock as he fell, he felt the ankle twist.

"Stay away from me, if you ever touch me again you'll be eating through a straw for the rest of your life."

"Wow, you can really hit," he said impressed with the power of the punch, but he laughed slightly as he stood and tested his ankle.

"And don't forget it," She turned and started walking.

"Wait, where are you going?" He asked hobbling behind her.

"Back to the cave," she answered.

"Wait I think you twisted my ankle."

"Like I care," the Asari seemed to move even faster.

"Elysia wait," He called out and reached out a hand, only to find himself diving for cover as a gunshot echoed and the bullet landed too close for comfort. Elysia did stop this time and looked to him.

"Run," She said and pushed him.

"My ankle," He protested.

"It's just pain, we can worry about the damage after we don't get shot," she said and pushed him again and then they had been on the run for what seemed like hours. Many times he had wanted to stop but the damn Asari would not let him.

The both seemed to hold their breath as a four sets of feet moved past them at a quick pace. It got even worse as another set came by and then stopped. He was calm, he had been through worse, but he could have sworn he could actually hear the Commandos heart beating faster. The man was talking into a head set.

"Yes Sir, we seem to have lost them," there was a pause, "We can continue down the river to see if they went there or set up a perimeter and get the dogs…"

"Yes the Human and one of the Asari…"

"Ok, we'll head down the river and them come back up and start a grid. I think the human is injured, he was limping…"

"Roger…" and with that the man moved on. Neither of them moved for a very long time.

"You see anything?" Keith whispered.

"Stay here," She whispered back and headed out, "I'll check out the area and if it's safe we'll get out of here. She stood up and reached for the rifle then decided against it and pulled out her pistol. She moved slowly using the trees for cover. She moved for about ten minutes and an arch and when she was satisfied she moved back for Keith, only to find him gone.

"What?" She looked around and heard a scuffle. She ran back the way she had come to find two soldier holding Keith to the ground as a third kicked at him.

"Enough," She shouted, bring her arm up without even thinking, the man kicking Keith was flung through the air, his head splitting open on a tree. She had not meant to do that but at this moment she didn't care. She just needed to get her and Keith out of danger. The other two started to rise and she fired hitting one of the quickly and he fell to the ground, the other one had a barrier up and turned and threw his arm underhand in her direction she dove quickly to the side as the shockwave traveled past her. She felt butterflies in her stomach. This was the first time she had ever fought another biotic.

As she rolled back to her feet she threw out another throw but the human biotic was running and turning back towards her with a pistol. She threw her barrier up quickly and returned fire. Before the bullets could even get close something slammed into the human and the man flew hard into a tree. She looked as Keith was still bent over but glowing. She had no idea he was biotic, obviously a vanguard. She tucked that information away as she finished of the human that had flown into the tree. She ran over and helped Keith to stand straight.

"Are you ok?" She asked letting him lean on her.

"And again you save my ass," He said, "You Asari are strange."

"No, just I, most Asari would have let them have you a long time ago. Me, I'm just stupid."

They started to move and she heard gunfire from behind them and she fell to her knees, spinning around from the position she threw up her own aftershock in the direction of the soldier that was attacking, he flew off against the force of the attack and this time Keith finished him off. He looked down to her.

"Kid?"

"I'm good," She said standing but then fell right back down.

"No, you're not," Keith said and picked up, cradling her in his arms as she finally realized she had been shoot, blood oozed out of her hip, he could feel his ankle screaming at him but it was no longer important. Elysia had carried him this far, he needed to get her out of there. He could see her small blue had slowly turning purple as her blood began to cover it.

He ran as fast as he could but he had no idea where he was going. He followed the mountains in front of him but even then he didn't if it was the right mountains. He ran until he couldn't run any more then he stopped and struggled to control his heavy breathing, hoping to hear if anyone was following him.

"Did we win?" Elysia asked.

"You were amazing kid, I think we lost them," He said and gently placed her on the ground. He began to zip open her pants.

"Hey," she said, not thinking clearly.

"I'm not taking advantage of you, promise," he said. "I just want to see what we have. He held her gently as he lowered her pants slightly and looked to the wound; the bullet seemed to have gone right through her, which was a blessing in disguise.

"Is it bad?" She asked as a tear ran down her cheek, she felt herself get angry, she needed to be stronger.

"It went right through, which sounds bad but considering we have nothing to pull a bullet out with, that's a good thing."

"I can hardly feel it anymore," she lied. It was more a dull pain and numbness mixed together. She was beginning to feel tired.

"Don't you fall asleep," He said and pulled her to her feet, pulling her pants back up. He let her lean on him completely but made her walk the best she could. He was not a Doctor but he always thought that if they fell asleep when injured they would never wake back up. She grunted as she walked and he could not help but feel extremely guilty for toying with the woman earlier.

"Nope, wide awake," She mumbled.

"Don't move," came a voice from behind. A string of curses flew from Keith's lips. I want to see your hands.

"He wanted to see our hands," Keith said, Elysia nodded to him. They both turned, Keith pulling the man into the air and Elysia hitting him with a throw to lift him even harder. They watched as he bounced to the ground. The only problem was others were coming towards them.

"Can you get a barrier up?" he asked, she nodded. Before either of them could do anything there was a fluster of movement and the first soldier fell to the ground several quills sticking out of his throat and face. Keith turned to see the others coming to their rescue.

"How did you know?" he asked as the large Krogans took down another soldier with his shot gun.

"Varra started going insane saying Elysia was in trouble," Tanith answered. "She wouldn't stop bothering us until we started moving."

"Well, thank god she did," Keith said, he picked Elysia back up in his arms. Laius and Remes finished of the remaining two soldiers.

"Apparently her people have links like the Asari but not quite like the Asari," Laius explained.

"We didn't have time to get all of the information, she was beside herself, we'll figure it all out when we get back to the cave," Remes said. Keith agreed with that statement.

"So, we won?" the Asari asked. Keith looked to Varra and nodded his own thanks.

"Yeah Kid, we won this time," he said.

As soon as they entered the cave Keith laid Elysia on the ground, at some point during his run she had gone unconscious. Varra had run ahead of the rest of the group to let Dharti know what was happening and the older Asari had prepared. None of them were really doctors so the best they could to was pump the wound full of medi gel and hope for the best. Dharti had cleared the room to do what she had to do.

"So they were human? All of them?" Laius asked.

"All the soldiers we encountered were," Keith answered.

"Soldiers or mercenaries?" this was from Tanith, she had been a little bit worried about who had come after them. Learning it was some human organization made her feel a lot better. It still wasn't good, but at least nobody was going to try and get her back to Tuchanka.

"They were all wearing the same uniform, there were minor differences but the same, but that doesn't mean anything either."

"Cerberus?" Laius said looking at Keith's foot.

"I don't think so, they like their uniforms and these were not them," Keith looked to his swollen ankle and bit his lip. Alpha Protocol might as well be Cerberus, he couldn't decide to share what he knows about them or not. He still held on to the idea that he could at least get himself off the plant. He was not ready to share how he knew about Alpha Protocol.

"What do you think the threat level is?"

"I don't know old man, we took out a squad today I think, we had one wounded," Keith said.

"Two if you include you ankle," Remes pointed out, Keith glared at him for a few moment, he knew Remes had no idea of why his ankle was sprained but it still made him feel guilty for his teasing Elysia.

"Yeah sure," he said as Laius began to tape up his swollen ankle.

"I would say stay off your feet for a while." Laius said. It grew quiet for a few minutes before Keith turned to Varra.

"How did you know we were in trouble?" he asked.

"I felt it," she shrugged as if it was nothing. She had to admit it was the first time she had ever felt another's emotions. Most of her people were able to feel emotions off each other but she had never really been close to anyone in her tribe. She felt more connected to the blue woman who had cut her from the tree then she had anyone else. When she first felt the fear and adrenaline rush she had thought she was going insane. Then she realized what it was but had a hard time convincing everyone else that something was wrong.

"So this is normal for your people?" Keith continued his line of questioning.

"Most of us yes, but it had to be someone we are close with, friends, family, loved ones."

"Is there anything else we should know about you or your people?"

Varra had to think she didn't know Keith well enough to say what was different between their two people. Her people, the Karthins, didn't have those loud weapons, nor did they glow blue and had smoky wisps about their bodies. But then she had not seen that on anyone but Elysia. She thought about the Shaman, he was an exceptional healer. He had once explained to her he just had to envision a person healing from the inside out and it happened. That was about the only other special thing she could think of but she had no idea of this groups Shamans could do that or not. She shrugged her answer.

Dharti moved out of the cave and sat down with the rest of them, "There's not much I can do, I cleaned it out, used the medigel, it's going to leave a mark but I'm sure she'll be fine. She just needs to rest, let it heal."

It was quiet for a very long time as everyone seemed lost in thought. "We're going to have to move on, we can't stay here." Tanith interrupted the peace. "We need to find a place where we don't have to run. Right now they are a good tracker away from finding us, we don't know the limit of their resource, and they might not even have a limit."

"Do you think we'll ever get home?" Dharti asked. She looked from one survivor to the next, no one really had an answer for that, but she imagined that they all thought the way she did. They were on this planet for the long haul.


	12. Chapter 12

Dharti shivered as her lovers fingers lightly moved up and down her spine, sending slight shivers through entire body as the soft fingers reached her shoulders and twirled slightly before moving down. One thing she had learned quickly about Kim was that she was a wonderful and selfless lover. She had a talent for knowing just how long to tease the body and just how to push her to her threshold and then hold her there before releasing her into blissful oblivion.

They had been talking more and more about having a child even though Dharti was still in her maiden stage. The Asari was mature for her age; she had not been one to run off into adventure and excitement. She instead had gone into a deep study of music and then began to teach.

Dharti knew she was sleeping but she was loathed to wake. She had not had a wonderful dream in so long and she wanted to hold on to the sensations Kim so talently brought out in her. She wanted to bask in the loving embrace of her wife for a little while longer.

"Can't you stay forever," She whispered to Kim, her own fingers reaching up to caress her lover's cheek.

"I wish I could lover but at some point you are going to have to wake up," Kim answered with a smile. Her brown eyes shone brightly.

"No, I can stay; we are in a safe place. The others can go on without me."

"You know they can't. You are the best with the bow and you are the voice of the group. They need you to stop each other from fighting."

"Tanith can take care of that, they listen to him," she countered. Kim kissed her forehead.

"But there is more to the Krogan then meets the eye, even you suspect he is lying about something."

She sighed as Kim began to lick her forehead. Dharti giggled, "That's cute," she said as Kim continued to lick her forehead.

"OK, enough is enough, maybe you can move a little bit…" she trailed off as she woke to find some six legged creature licking her face. She pushed it away and jumped to her feet quickly, a slight scream leaving her lips.

As the sun suddenly reached her eyes she struggled to remember where she was. She could hear giggling. She smiled as she remembered that Varra had brought them to a neighbouring camp. She looked down to the medium sized furry creature that had been giving her a bath It sort of looked like some sort of weasel but it must have been about fifty pounds. It lifted up its two front paws and began to sniff at her.

She reached down and patted it as the group of children watched. She imagined that they had never seen anyone that wasn't green before, as a matter of fact the children were absolutely enamoured by the whole group. Even the parents could not help but look. She could only imagine what it must be like for these people. She wondered what her people would have been like seeing aliens for the first time.

They had argued for a long time about joining the tribe. They needed to get these humans off there trail and everything they tried did not seem to work. They had needed to find somewhere for Elysia to heal. The Commando had proven to be a quick healer but she was still hurting. She never said anything but everyone could see it in the things she did. Sitting down slower, not smiling quite as much and she was almost always tired.

Dharti also noted that she would not go near Keith. She could only wonder just what happened between the two on that day. As much as Elysia liked to talk at times, she was not saying anything about that and neither was Keith. She was not going to push.

She stood straight and smiled to the children that watched her, "Hello, I guess I slept in."

The children giggled and ran off as Dharti made her way out of the barricade she had slept behind. She noticed Keith first, he was talking with the tribes Chief, he had mentioned trying to get them all equipped with bows, except maybe Tanith, who they all figured his body composition just was not conducive to the weapon. Varra had already gotten him a spear.

She waved and smiled to a few people as she passed. Varra had explained that there were several different tribes in the area but has a whole they were similar. None of them were overly aggressive, none of them tried to attack the others. On occasion two or three tribes would meet to celebrate one occasion or another, and when in times of need they supported each other. She had also mentioned that their time with any particular tribe would be limited because they were not a part of it.

Dharti didn't mind, she knew it was best they moved on. She would not want to bring the humans here to this peaceful tribe. She had no doubt it would be a slaughter and they would not even hesitate.

She moved over to the tent they had brought Elysia to and she found the younger Asari was gone. She frowned slightly and moved back out of the tent in search of her. A few of the children told her she was down by the river.

She found knee deep in the river with long sticks in their hands with some sort of string hanging off them. They were fishing or it looked like they were fishing but she could hear that uncontrollable type of giggling coming from the two of them. She smiled and moved to the water.

"Have you caught anything yet?" she asked the two. The giggled harder and she couldn't help but smile more.

"I caught an Asari," Varra said proudly as Elysia's cheeks went from their usual shade of lavender to a deeper purple. She really had no marking to hide the blush either just a spattering of lighter freckles across her nose. She was one of the few Asari that Dharti knew that had no markings. For the Asari, their markings were individual, like humans hair. Her own were similar to her mother's that butterflied around her eyes. But then her skin was also much different than Elysia, having a teal tint to it.

"I am sure there's a story to that," Dharti said.

"Someone forgot to tell me about the sudden drop in the rivers floor just about there," she pointed two feet away from her.

"She fell," Varra said and the two girls continued their giggling. Dharti could envision the chaos and laughed herself.

"Well, interesting as that is I need to do a quick check." Dharti said looking at Elysia, "And I'll let you come to me."

Elysia nodded and handed Varra her pole. She came out of the water. "You should try it, the water is warm."

"Everything about this planet is warm, or hot," Dharti countered. She had already cut her pant into shorts.

"I think I'm better," Elysia said and lifted her shirt, tugging her pants down slightly. Dharti took her time gently probing the areas. It had indeed healed quickly, almost too quickly. All that remained were two angry red scars, one on the front and a slightly bigger one on the back.

"It's not sore anymore?"

"I little tiny bit, like a nag but not like before," The younger Asari answered.

"And when I touch?"

Dharti smiled mischievously, "My heart flutters," she joked. Dharti rolled her eyes, "I won't say it's not tender but nothing that would hold me back."

"Being up and about will help a lot. I heard your people say that there is a herd of Tora close by. They will be going hunting in a couple days. I think Keith wants to use their path to hide our tracks, Laius and Remes thinks it's a good idea as well."

"Well I am ready," Elysia said with determination. Dharti smiled and placed a hand on the girls shoulder.

"You did well, Elysia, you handled yourself very well and you saved Keith's life, at least according to him and I somehow don't think he gives out praises very often."

Elysia sobered, "I sometimes wonder if I should have left him, he is an ass."

"Yes, but for now, he is our ass and we are all we have. It's not much because we don't know each other but we need to try and make it work."

"I understand," she said and turned back to the river, she waded back in to join Varra who smiled and waved, then handed her back her pole.

Dharti nodded to herself and then turned heading back to the camp.

* * *

Keith had been rather impressed with Varra's people. When the young woman had mentioned coming for rest he had thought it was ludicrous. He was sure they would not have allowed strangers, especially strangers that were as different as they were.

When they had arrived everyone on the camp had wanted to touch them and listen to them talk and know whatever they could about them. The Chief had been more than welcoming but had warned them it would only be for a short time. That was fine considering he had no doubt that Alpha Protocol would kill each and every one of these people just to find them.

When Elysia had woken and finally wandered out of the tent she had been placed in they had decided they would be leaving. She could heal while they were on the road. He and the Chief had talked for most of the morning about where they could go and what was safe and what was not. He has asked about the other side of the mountains, but like Varra the Chief did not think it was a god idea. He advised that it was chaotic over there but could not add more. It made him a little bit more then curious.

When everyone reported they were ready to go they had headed on their way. After a couple days of actual rest he kinda hated to leave. He had actually grown a little fond of these people. They reminded him of the stories he had read about native life on Earth. He could not help but wonder if every world went through that phase.

They had left shortly after lunch with fresh supplies, food and weapons, the tribe had filled their backpacks as full as they could. They really had no idea of where they were going and he knew he was not the only one thinking about the mountains. He just really hated talking about anything with this group because there was always an annoying debate. He walked alone in though for what felt like hours.

As they walked the path of the Tora he let himself fall behind to Elysia. He knew she had been avoiding him and he really wanted to set the record straight. As bitter as he wanted to stay, and as much as he was not a fan of the Asari, the young woman had saved his life. He walked in pace with her as she tried her best to ignore him.

"Listen, Kid, I'm sorry," He said finally. Elysia didn't look to him and kept walking. "Dammit what do you want me to say, it was the wrong thing to do and that I am a bad man. I mean ok yes, it was very mean and I was an ass, I just, I don't do well with people, I generally don't like them."

"Oh, that's a great apology," Elysia said looking to him. For a second he got angry and was about to walk away. He took a deep breath.

"Just, I'm trying to eat humble pie here kid, give me a break." He said.

She stopped walking, "If apologies were easy there would be a lot more of them. What you did was cruel and mean and you did it for your own enjoyment because for you, you are all that matters," She said whispering angrily even though no one could hear them. "That's all you think about is yourself."

"Jesus, are Asari all self-absorbed and self-righteous?" Keith said getting angry.

"No, but you've been nothing but an ass since we crashed. You call me kid and well I might not be the most mature person here and yes I do lack some social graces, I don't make it a point to purposely hurt people."

"I get it, you're angry, and if it means anything. I am truly sorry for what I did. I feel bad about it and I feel bad that it hurt you and I wanted to thank you for saving my ass, but if you're going to throw that back in my face too forget about it." He growled and moved off.

Elysia watched him go and continued on herself. She was not ready to forgive him and obviously the human thought if he spoke some magic words everything would be all right. It was a typical human trait, they were always right and everyone was always wrong. Keith had done something that to her was unforgivable. Perhaps she was a romantic, perhaps she was foolish, and she didn't know she just knew that Keith had forced himself on her and made her feel less then she had.

She hadn't really thought about preserving herself for another she had really just not found anyone she wanted to share that part of herself with. She was not the type to run out and experiment just for the sake of experimenting. She knew a lot of Asari were like that, but she was not ready. Keith making fun of her then ruining it for her had left her feeling, different. She didn't like it either, which worried her. The mashing of the lips and his grizzly hair scratching at her face and his wet gooey tongue in her mouth had been gross. It made her wonder if she was wrong, were these things she was supposed to like, maybe it was different with different people she didn't know, she just suddenly envisioned herself living the life of an Ardat Yakshi.

She looked up to Keith who was walking by himself and wondered what made a person be like him. He obviously wasn't a complete ass, there was something in him, and he had tried to apologize. She just didn't think he really thought what he did was wrong. It was almost as if he was socially disabled, either that or circumstances had made him bitter, either way she did not want to deal with it. She continued to follow the group as they marched on.

Her thoughts filtered to the crash, she imagined everyone had someone that would worry about them back home and she realized she had no one. Her mother had died during the war and she really did not have any friends. She had never really been able to make them. Most Asari her age thought she was immature. She didn't care for drinking or the club scene, she wasn't into the whole just going somewhere to hang out. She often remained silent when people started talking about dating or who they like or what they wanted to do with who they liked.

She did like her movies and she did love Blasto the first Hanar Spectre and she also like the new series that had come out the supposedly chronicles Shepard's life and then there was another series starting that she had been looking for called Spectres that was based on a group of Spectres that worked to keep the galaxy safe using whatever means necessary. She also missed the long nights of playing Galaxy of Fantasy, in which her Krogan Spectre was fifth highest ranked on the whole game. She actually now ran the entire Spectre guild of the Galaxy.

Her idea of a good evening was a fruity drink and some snacks and killing some crime and or evil somewhere in the galaxy and maybe getting a level or two in the process. Of course this was not something she really shared with anyone, not that she didn't think other Asari played it, they just would not admit to it. As a matter of fact it had been reported that Asari were the second highest only slightly behind the Quarians. Of course though, stats could be fixed. She was sure she was not the only Asari who registered as a Quarian or some other race. A lot of male humans like to register as Asari as well to try and lure a date or two. There were a lot of predators in the game that were not made up bad guys.

As she slowly worked herself out of her train of thought she froze, they were being followed. She wasn't sure how she knew; she just had that sense of being watched. She continued to walk as if nothing was happening, trying her best to look with her peripherals, wishing she was really a Krogan with their extended peripheral vision. She kept quiet and then suddenly she saw him, following in the trees just a little bit behind her. It was one of the soldiers that had shot her.

She was really not ready for a fight right now; she was just feeling normal from their last conflict. She imagined though they would have no say in the matter. This group would probably continue to pursue them until they were all dead and she didn't think they would play fair either.

Again trying to not to noticed she moved to catch up with the group, moving herself between Tanith and Keith.

"We are being followed," she reported, speaking lowly "it's the soldiers that attacked a few days ago."

"Are you sure?" Keith asked.

"Yes, I have no doubt they haven't attacked because they are waiting until they have us surrounded," She added.

"I agree," Tanith said.

"I suggest then we move quickly, suddenly moving to our right and breaking through there," Elysia suggested.

Keith spoke much louder, "Then you should have gone to the bathroom before we left. Hold up guys," He called to the rest of the group, handing her a knife. He and Tanith moved to them while Elysia moved out to the right. She thought of the knife and she knew it was a peace offering, but she already had her pistol and assault rifle, not to mention biotics.

She moved about fifteen feet out from the group spotting two of the soldiers ducked behind a tree. She turned in their direction quickly, her arm glowing blue and wisps of blue smoke covering her entire body. She threw her hand out and then pulled it back, a series of biotic explosion burst out towards the tree. The two soldiers flew high in the air and she quickly threw her hand up in the air, sending them even higher. They then slammed hard to the ground and she looked over to Keith who had used his own biotics. She frowned as she pulled her pistol out, she hated to admit, at all, but she and Keith did make a good team in combat.

The other ran towards her and she took the rear with Keith as Tanith and Remes lead the group. The soldiers were now firing upon them. She moved behind a tree as did the others for cover. She returned fire not hitting anything but it did cause their pursuers to stop and get their own cover.

"We can't make a stand, they will just surround us," Keith yelled.

"Go, we'll cover you," Elysia yelled as Tanith joined her and Keith, her shot gun tearing a hole in one of the soldiers.

"We go together," Dharti shouted back.

"We have to keep moving Kid," Keith said.

Elysia nodded and sent out another shockwave and they used the distraction to run.

It was as if they were crawling even though they were running, she could hear them moving behind her and every once in a shot rang out around them. She spun and sent out another shockwave sending the attackers sprawling. She shook her head and moved back to a tree for cover.

"We need to make a stand, we cannot run forever," She said. She traded her pistol for the assault rifle and turned to make a stand. They had made it to the base of the mountain side so no one could come up from behind and they as rocks for cover. It was as good a defendable position as any. No one really answered but they all took position.

She was secretly hoping it was simply another squad like the one before, there had been about fifteen that time. They hid behind the rock and waited. When the first of the soldiers showed themselves they eliminated them quickly. Elysia looked over to Keith.

"Hey is that apology still out there?" She asked. He paused and looked over to her.

"Yeah, kid, it is," he said back.

"Good, accepted," she smiled and turned back spotting a three or four of the soldier trying to flank them.

"Good, now watch old Keith in action," he said with a slight smile. And with that he lets out a loud scream and disappeared only to reappear slamming into the group and then with another scream he jumped and slammed his fist into the ground. The four soldiers had never even stood a chance. She raised a brow, she knew he was biotic, but she had no idea he was a Vanguard, they were very rare. For the first time since they started running she realized they were going to beat these people.

She followed his league and went on the offensive with Tanith and Remes on either side of her. They moved back the way they came, moving from tree to tree and taking out anyone they came across. The squad that had come after them had obviously spread out trying to surround them; they were now paying for getting caught.

She smiled as she heard Keith scream out another charge somewhere in the distance. She had always wondered what a charge would feel like; she imagined it would be quite a rush. They moved in the direction they heard him. Suddenly he was running back out of breath.

"I am so out of shape," he said but there was a sparkle in his eye none of them had seen before, there's only a few left but they are scrambling to get away. I suggest we move before they call for back…"

"Keith, Major Keith Olsen," there was a call from behind them. The group turned.

"Bryson Davies, I see you're still scum," Keith said. Elysia looked to him wondering just who he was a Major for. "Couldn't get enough killing on Earth?"

The man seemed to ignore the question. "Turian, Krogan," he scowled at Elysia, "and Asari, my, you have fallen."

"You know better than that Bryson, my hatred go far beyond race, it's not limited like that."

The man laughed, "So I imagine this is the Asari that probably threw that creature into the middle of our party and gave me this?" He pointed to the large scar that disfigured the left side of his face. Elysia felt a tug of a smile on the corner of her lips but refrained from doing so. When no one answered he continued.

"It's a small universe, putting you and I on one planet. You should have come with me after the war; we would have been a great team."

"No we wouldn't," Keith answered, "and you're stalling us, probably waiting for a whole bunch of fresh troops."

The man smiled. "I can make you a deal, give me the Asari and I'll pretend I didn't even see the rest of you for now."

Elysia raised a brow, "Or I can just shoot you in the head." She added.

"Yes, you could I guess, but do you think the bullet from that rifle will penetrate my shields."

Elysia looked to Keith, "Is he a friend of yours? Do you owe him anything?"

"Nope, not really," Keith said.

"Then we are wasting time," She said and opened fire. The man Keith called Bryson ran for cover as her bullets slammed into his shields.

"Well that's going to make him very angry." Keith said as they turned and made their way back to the others. He knew Bryson well enough that he would now pursue Elysia to the ends of this Earth. He had not known the man until he had joined the Alliance, but he knew that he had also once been a part of Cerberus and a very, very, cruel man indeed. When they fought together Davies had no qualms in killing his allies if they got in his way, especially if they were Asari. The man had a special hate for them and Keith had no idea why. He also suddenly realized that he no longer wanted to use the black box to his own advantage. He would not make deals with that animal, not when he knew what he would do to this small group. Besides this little battle woke something up in him he never thought he would feel again. Or rather Elysia had when she accepted his apology. He hadn't expected the feeling, he had actually not really cared about any of them, or at least that was what he had told himself. But after these two events he felt closer to them, closer than he had to anyone since his fiancé died. It wasn't a huge feeling or an epiphany or anything like that but it was a spark. He would just have to see where that little spark went from here.

"We need to get over these mountain," he said when they were all together.

"I agree, I kind of worry about Varra's people if we stay here," Elysia said. "I think that guy would have no qualms killing anyone."

"Well, he's going to be gunning for us now, I think its personal," Tanith said, the Krogan had no idea; Keith had seen Bryson get personal before. Elysia opening fire on him would push him right over that edge.

Everyone looked to Varra; she was the only reason they had not gone over thus far. She looked to the mountain then back to the group. "I've never been over, just heard the stories."

"Well, it will be new for all of us, we'll take care of each other," Elysia took the natives arm in hers. "But we also understand if you won't come. You can go back to your people; no one has really seen you with us."

Varra smiled, "I will stay with you," she said and looked to the mountain, "it will be as you say, an adventure."

Elysia smiled and they all turned and headed up the path. Keith looked back to where Elysia had opened fire on Bryson. "Oh it will be an adventure all right," he whispered to himself before he turned and followed the group.

* * *

**Sorry about the delay but I had a bit of writers block mixed with computer block as I had to get a new hard drive and power supply. Anyway, I think this might be the end to this episode but not the continuing story. This is supposed to be like a series, with several episodes so this can be considered Series 1 episode 1, unless I get extremely bugged for more of this crew, I might do something else before returning. Or if people think this is a horrible place to end the first episode I can continue but I will see what people think.**


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